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Friday, August 29, 2025

IMA researching ways to strengthen coral reef restoration in Tobago

by

263 days ago
20241209
Divers from the Institute of Marine Affairs at Mt. Irvine Reef, Tobago.  [Image courtesy IMA]

Divers from the Institute of Marine Affairs at Mt. Irvine Reef, Tobago. [Image courtesy IMA]

The In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs (IMA), to­geth­er with a re­search team from Coastal Dy­nam­ics Lim­it­ed (CDL), is us­ing ad­vanced com­put­er mod­els to gain new in­sights in­to To­ba­go’s coral reef ecosys­tems.

A news re­lease from the In­sti­tute ex­plains that the com­put­er mod­els help sci­en­tists un­der­stand how ocean cur­rents in­ter­act with coral struc­tures and how coral lar­vae move through the wa­ter.

“This re­search could great­ly im­prove coral restora­tion ef­forts by show­ing how dif­fer­ent reef sys­tems are con­nect­ed and how coral lar­vae spread,” the IMA re­lease said.

In a re­cent study ti­tled “A Nu­mer­i­cal Mod­el­ling Ap­proach to Coral Restora­tion and Man­age­ment: Un­der­stand­ing To­ba­go’s Hy­dro­dy­nam­ics and Reef Con­nec­tiv­i­ty”, IMA re­searchers re­port their find­ings on how wa­ter move­ment is shap­ing the health and growth of coral reef ecosys­tems around To­ba­go.

“By un­der­stand­ing these un­der­wa­ter pat­terns,” the IMA ex­plained, “the sci­en­tif­ic team aims to bet­ter pro­tect and re­store the reef struc­tures that are vi­tal to the is­land’s ma­rine life and coastal com­mu­ni­ties.”

Ac­cord­ing to the IMA, To­ba­go’s coral reef ecosys­tems play a cru­cial role in pro­tect­ing the is­land’s coast­lines. Act­ing like nat­ur­al bar­ri­ers, these reef struc­tures help shield shore­lines from the im­pact of waves and storms, re­duc­ing dam­age to prop­er­ty and the en­vi­ron­ment.

The IMA al­so notes that be­yond coastal pro­tec­tion, To­ba­go’s coral reef com­mu­ni­ties sup­port lo­cal liveli­hoods through fish­ing and tourism, which are vi­tal to the is­land’s econ­o­my. They al­so pro­vide homes for count­less ma­rine species, con­tribut­ing to a healthy and thriv­ing ocean ecosys­tem.

How­ev­er, these coral ecosys­tems face grow­ing threats from hu­man ac­tiv­i­ties and cli­mate change. Ris­ing sea tem­per­a­tures are caus­ing more fre­quent ma­rine heat­waves, which lead to coral bleach­ing—a con­di­tion that makes corals more vul­ner­a­ble to dis­ease and less able to with­stand en­vi­ron­men­tal changes. When coral reefs suf­fer, so do the ser­vices they pro­vide to the com­mu­ni­ty.

The research team from Coastal Dynamics Limited attending the International Coastal Symposium 2024.  From left to right: Medina Ishmael-Lalla; Nazeer Gopaul; and Anesha Deonarine.  [Image courtesy IMA]

The research team from Coastal Dynamics Limited attending the International Coastal Symposium 2024. From left to right: Medina Ishmael-Lalla; Nazeer Gopaul; and Anesha Deonarine. [Image courtesy IMA]

 

Restor­ing To­ba­go’s coral reef sys­tems

 

Coral Reef Ecol­o­gist at the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs (IMA), Dr An­jani Ganase, high­light­ed the im­por­tance of reef con­nec­tiv­i­ty and man­age­ment in coral restora­tion.

“Un­der­stand­ing the in­ter­ac­tions be­tween ocean cur­rents and coral reef sys­tems is cru­cial for ef­fec­tive restora­tion ef­forts. It al­lows us to pre­dict lar­val dis­per­sal pat­terns and iden­ti­fy ar­eas that may be more re­silient to en­vi­ron­men­tal changes,” she not­ed.

“By in­te­grat­ing this knowl­edge with on­go­ing mon­i­tor­ing,” she ex­plained, “we can de­vel­op more tar­get­ed strate­gies that en­hance the re­cov­ery of our reef com­mu­ni­ties.”

These restora­tion ef­forts are part of the Ma­rine Re­silience Ini­tia­tive (MARIN) To­ba­go, a project sup­port­ed by bpTT. The ini­tia­tive fo­cus­es on coral reef and sea­grass restora­tion, while build­ing a net­work for To­ba­go’s ma­rine re­silience.

 

Us­ing tech­nol­o­gy to help reef com­mu­ni­ties re­cov­er

 

Sim­i­lar to video games, the sci­en­tists use com­put­er sim­u­la­tions through ad­vanced mod­el­ling tech­niques to mim­ic re­al-life sce­nar­ios, which helps with study­ing how ocean cur­rents around To­ba­go trans­port coral lar­vae. The IMA notes that the mod­els can even be ex­tend­ed to ex­plore con­nec­tions with near­by is­lands such as Grena­da, Bar­ba­dos, and St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

The project us­es two main types of mod­els:

  ●   Hy­dro­dy­nam­ic Mod­el­ling.  This sim­u­lates ocean con­di­tions such as wa­ter flow, tides, tem­per­a­ture, and salin­i­ty lev­els.

  ●   Agent-Based Mod­el­ling.  This tracks how coral lar­vae drift with the cur­rents un­til they even­tu­al­ly set­tle on the reef sys­tems.

Oceanog­ra­ph­er and Nu­mer­i­cal Mod­eller at Coastal Dy­nam­ics Lim­it­ed (CDL), Med­i­na Ish­mael-Lal­la, de­scribes how mod­el­ling is help­ing sci­en­tists with their at­tempts to pro­tect To­ba­go’s coral reefs.

“Nu­mer­i­cal mod­el­ling is a cost-ef­fec­tive way to ex­plore To­ba­go’s ocean dy­nam­ics and reef con­nec­tions,” Ish­mael-Lal­la not­ed.

“By sim­u­lat­ing these con­di­tions, we can de­vel­op tar­get­ed strate­gies for coral reef preser­va­tion and restora­tion, es­pe­cial­ly fol­low­ing coral bleach­ing events. This ap­proach helps us eval­u­ate dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios, in­clud­ing the im­pacts of cli­mate change,” the CDL oceanog­ra­ph­er added.

In Oc­to­ber 2024, CDL pre­sent­ed a sci­en­tif­ic pa­per at the In­ter­na­tion­al Coastal Con­fer­ence (ICS) in Do­ha, Qatar, show­cas­ing the es­sen­tial role of these mod­el­ling tech­niques in To­ba­go’s coral reef restora­tion.

 

Mon­i­tor­ing for long-term coral health

 

The IMA says in ad­di­tion to mod­el­ling, it con­ducts an­nu­al coral mon­i­tor­ing to as­sess the health of To­ba­go’s reef struc­tures.

“This pro­gram mea­sures mul­ti­ple fac­tors in­clud­ing the amount of liv­ing coral, types of coral and fish species, and any signs of dis­ease or dam­age,” the In­sti­tute points out.

Da­ta is col­lect­ed through the Coral Reef Ear­ly Warn­ing Sys­tem (CREWS) at Buc­coo and Spey­side, which helps IMA sci­en­tists mon­i­tor wa­ter qual­i­ty, as changes in tem­per­a­ture and salin­i­ty can af­fect coral health.

“By com­bin­ing both mod­el­ling and mon­i­tor­ing, the IMA is tak­ing a dy­nam­ic, com­pre­hen­sive ap­proach to coral reef restora­tion,” the re­lease ob­served. “These ef­forts aim to en­hance the re­silience of coral com­mu­ni­ties, en­sur­ing they con­tin­ue to pro­vide es­sen­tial ben­e­fits for To­ba­go’s peo­ple and ma­rine life for gen­er­a­tions to come.”


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