SHAAMA SANDOOYEA Climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction go hand-in-hand The data is clear about the climate crisis: we are on the path of reaching an increase of 1.5°C in the mean global temperature by 2040 in the best-case scenario. If the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not reduced, the mean global temperature will […]
In the middle of the Indian Ocean lies some of the last coral reef wilderness on Earth. The Chagos Archipelago, a collection of atolls, including Earth s largest - the Great Chagos Bank- is home to reefs that have been largely undisturbed by humans for the last 50 years. Some estimates indicate the Chagos Archipelago may contain more than half of the healthy coral reefs remaining in the entire Indian Ocean. These reefs are protected both by their remote location, and in one of the world s largest no-take marine reserves the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) marine protected area.
In 2015, scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) came to the Chagos Archipelago to assess the status of the reefs. Over the course of two months at sea, an international team of scientists conducted thousands of surveys of the benthic and reef fish communities at over 100 locations across the archipelago. This research was conducted as part of the Foundation s Global Reef Ex