Chagos (formerly the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT]): the planet's most remote, "pristine" reef, yet still regularly succumbing to bleaching.
That said, it's still one of the nicest places I've ever been diving, and I hope the photos below do it justice. The Living Oceans Foundation surveyed ~115 reefs of BIOT between March and May of 2015; click here for details of the mission, and the field report can be downloaded here (or here for GPS coordinates of sites).
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Benthic data have been overlaid on each site; see this file for a key to the abbreviations. For the aftermath of the bleaching event we sadly witnessed, check out this article, with a more recent update here. There’s also a 2024 documentary, though as will be evident after going through my website (& data), Chagos can no longer be said to be pristine and free of climate change and other human impacts. In fact, I am using my bleaching images to better train the CoralNet AI to identify bleached corals in images. You should be able to access the images here.
High-resolution habitat maps of all sites surveyed will eventually be posted here. By the way, I did NOT make this map.
I have RNA, DNA, and protein samples (click here for protocol.) from both pocilloporid and seriatoporid coral samples. The DNAs were analyzed via RFLP by Ben Wainwright in order to elucidate host species. Of the 166 Pocillopora spp. colonies sampled, 115, 34, and 17 were P. acuta (77% of those analyzed), P. damicornis (23%), or not analyzed (of which nine were never extracted), respectively. Such DNAs will later be used for microbial profiling.
Me videoing a manta ray.
Unlike for samples of the prior LOF Global Reef Expedition cruises, I will not assess gene expression given my findings (Mayfield et al. 2016 & 2018) that there is no congruency between gene expression and respective protein levels in reef corals or their in hospite Symbiodiniaceae populations. Instead, I will use label-based mass spectrometry approaches to profile the proteins synthesized, as proteins actually undertake cellular work and are therefore better predictors of cell biology and consequently animal physiology.
If anyone is interested in collaborating on this, I would be more than happy to share samples! I have samples from the SAME REEF (Peros Banhos) both before and during bleaching. Unfortunately, I did not re-sample the same colonies since we did not plan to return to any one site; the resulting sample set may nevertheless be telling, especially since some of the corals (Pocillopora acuta & Seriatopora hystrix) resisted bleaching, whereas those nearby (<5 m) did not. This may allow us to explore the molecular basis of thermotolerance (or lack thereof).
Best of Chagos: mantas, whale sharks, and, alas, coral bleaching (oh my).
