Through bleaching and tsunami: Coral reef recovery in the Maldives

Carla Morri (1) , Monica Montefalcone (1) , Roberta Lasagna (1) , Giulia Gatti (2) , Alessio Rovere (3) , Valeriano Parravicini (4) , Giuseppe Baldelli (5) , Paolo Colantoni (5) , Carlo Nike Bianchi (1)

1 DISTAV - Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences
2 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
3 MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences [Bremen]
4 CRIOBE - Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l'environnement
5 DiSTeVA - Department of Earth, Life and Environment Sciences, University of Urbino

Coral reefs are degrading worldwide, but little information exists on their previous conditions for most regions of the world. Since 1989, we have been studying the Maldives, collecting data before, during and after the bleaching and mass mortality event of 1998. As early as 1999, many newly settled colonies were recorded. Recruits shifted from a dominance of massive and encrusting corals in the early stages of recolonisation towards a dominance of Acropora and Pocillopora by 2009. Coral cover, which dropped to less than 10% after the bleaching, returned to pre-bleaching values of around 50% by 2013. The 2004 tsunami had comparatively little effect. In 2014, the coral community was similar to that existing before the bleaching. According to descriptors and metrics adopted, recovery of Maldivian coral reefs took between 6 and 15 years, or may even be considered unachieved, as there are species that had not come back yet.

Mots clés: Coral reefs; Resilience; Hard coral cover; Recruitment; Maldives; Indian Ocean

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Carla Morri, Monica Montefalcone, Roberta Lasagna, Giulia Gatti, Alessio Rovere, et al.. Through bleaching and tsunami: Coral reef recovery in the Maldives. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015, 98 (1-2), ⟨10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.06.050⟩. ⟨hal-01212864⟩