CSA’s Report on Coral Bleaching
A new report has just been released by our Chief Science Advisor and the environment team at BIOT describing the coral bleaching event that took place in 2024 and the impacts this had on coral reefs across the Archipelago. Coral bleaching is a stress response driven by unusually hot water and is becoming more frequent with changing climate. Mass bleaching impacted corals everywhere, and led to morality of some 23% of all coral in Chagos. Although high, this is much lower than the previous mass bleaching event, and good recovery might be expected with time, and in the absence of further disturbance.
This is the first time that we have been able to track a full event of this nature through time, and shows the considerable value of having trained environmental observers in the territory year-round. Prior observations depended on interpretations of one-off annual observations by visiting scientists.
