2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in the West Pacific: threatened ecosystems or hope for the reefs?
| Project/Area Number |
20K06210
|
|---|
| Research Institution | University of the Ryukyus |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
フレデリック シニゲル 琉球大学, 熱帯生物圏研究センター, ポスドク研究員 (10625940)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | coral |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Despite the COVID pandemics, significant achievements could be reached towards understanding mesophotic coral communities across latitudes. The travel restrictions showed the importance of developing collaborations with local colleagues as important data could still be obtained even though all the field work ha to be postponed.
The first photo-quadrat data from Indonesia were obtained and analysed while pre-existing quadrats from the Philippines could be fully analysed. In Okinawa, we could obtain accurate bathymetric data on multiple of the sites surveyed in this project.
Together with my collaborators from the Philippines we compared juvenile coral communities between mesophotic and shallow reefs and their associations with surrounding adult coral communities.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The COVID pandemics affected strongly the field work initially planned. During this past fiscal year, efforts have focused on the analyses of pre-existing data and the acquisition some of the data by local collaborators in the Philippines and Indonesia. Therefore, basic expectations could be achieved and the project is still on track and did not suffer major issues.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will keep adapting to the covid restrictions and focus on the all the work that can be done in Okinawa. As soon as possibilities for field work abroad will open, I will conduct the field part of this study with my collaborators in Philippines and Indonesia. The Philippine work is tentatively planned for February 2022, but will depend on the evolution of the pandemics. In Okinawa, detailed analyses of the quadrats obtained and additional sites will be surveyed to explore the depth distribution of corals in the mesophotic zone. A taxonomic database based on specimen collected will be developed to support identifications of the corals on the photo-quadrats.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
The covid pandemics prohibited travels. Therefore, all the travels have been postponed to the next fiscal year.
|
