Coral bleaching

Each coral colony is assessed for the presence and intensity of bleaching. Bleaching has been found to inhibit the ability of corals to recover from small-scale tissue damage and may increase partial or total mortality of a colony. Coral bleaching is often transient in nature with corals regaining their pigmentation after several weeks or a few months. With severe or prolonged bleaching, corals may also experience reduced skeletal growth, decline in reproductive fitness or failure and inability to resist competition from algae or other invertebrates. In extreme cases, bleaching can overtime lead to a reduction in species diversity, cover and eventually, loss of reef framework. On account of Lakshadweep Islands’ isolation, fragility, and extreme vulnerability to environmental deterioration, the biodiversity of islands are threatened. The effects of climate change, global, warming and sea-level rise have disastrous consequences on islands, particularly small islands that are low and flat, like the Lakshadweep islands.

Much of the living coral cover around Lakshadweep was destroyed in the 1998 bleaching event which had varying impacts with estimates ranging at varying levels from 43% to 87% (Pillai and Venkataraman 2000). A total coral cover of about 81.8% was reported to be affected in the lagoon reefs of Kavaratti and Kadmat islands of Lakshadweep (Arthur,1999). The initial assessments of recovery of corals on six of the Lakshadweep islands conducted during October and November 1999 indicated an increase in cover of live coral from between 5% and 10% immediately after bleaching between 15% and 20% and an additional estimates of recovery would be obtained from permanent transects laid at Kadmat island in February and March, 2000 (Pet-Soede et al, 2000). In some areas, significant recovery appears to be underway. The areas close to anthropogenic activities and sedimentation from land leads to the degradation of reefs and prevents its recovery.

Click to know more:

• Project Abstract
• Oil Spillage
• Pollution
• Coral bleaching
• Highlights of the findings achieved in the project
• Detailed report of work done on the project
• Description of the study areas
• Recommendation including remedial measures
• Impacts of the work on the scientific potential of our country