FieldWork Tetiaroa May 2022. Coral detection for future studies. Pierrick Harnay - Hollie Putnam

Context

We want in Tetiaroa during May 2022 for couples days to better understand the population in Tetiaroa island. Unfortunately not lot of papers shows the diversity in corals in Tetiaroa. In this context, we conducted transects at several locations on the island in order to have a broad spectrum of those that could be done in the field in future projects.

Process during this trip

During the 3 days on site we observed, took pictures and video of the places with the largest coral cover. We also took the GPS points of some coral sites to compare them to Mo’orea Island.

Observation

Corals diversity

In some places of the island, there are many patches of Acropora pulchra or other species of Acropora sp.. We also observed patches of Pavona cactus especially in front of motu Rimatu’u. High population of Pocillopora sp. were observed on the southern level of the island. Within the lagoon as a whole, Porites sp. is a major species found in all coral areas of the island.

State of health of the corals

In the majority of places observed on the island, the corals were in good health. Despite high temperatures in the lagoon, few bleached corals were observed.

Coral abundance

In order to better visualize the coral abundance for each genus, a map (below) has been created to show this diversity. In the future, we could consider renewing this map at a larger scale of coral species in order to have a global view. It will therefore be important to set up transect protocols.
In the integrity of the Pocillopora sp detection project, transects and sampling could be programmed in order to know the genetic diversity of Pocillopora sp within Tetiaroa atoll.

Example of corals in Tetiaroa