Mo’orea, French Polynesia, is surrounded by a diverse and vibrant coral reef ecosystem. (Image credit: Christian John)
A massive, multi-year scientific expedition led by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and collaborating institutions, including the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa, determined that land use on tropical islands can shape water quality in lagoons and that rainfall can be an important mediator for connections between land and lagoon waters. These findings provide vital information for ecosystem stewards facing global reef decline. Their findings were published recently in Limnology and Oceanography.
“This study is pretty groundbreaking in terms of its scale,” said Christian John, lead author of the study and postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We looked at algal tissue nutrients, water chemistry, and microbial communities at almost 200 sites around the island of Mo‘orea, French Polynesia, and we repeated this sampling over multiple years.”…