Sangeeta uncovers coral reef secrets
The secrets of the coral reefs lying along the coast of Kenya in Africa have been uncovered following years of painstaking research by Sangeeta Mangubhai.
Sangeeta, pictured, a PhD student with Southern Cross University, is back in Australia to complete the final part of her study, which she hopes will lead to better understanding and management of the reefs along the East African coast.
“The Western Indian Ocean experienced a temperature-related mass coral bleaching event in 1998 and a lot of the reefs suffered wide-scale damage and loss of their corals,” Sangeeta said.
“We need to understand when and how often the corals reproduce, and how successful those reproductive events are to be able to understand the potential for reef recovery.
“This is even more important now with coral bleaching events becoming an almost annual occurrence world-wide, with different regions affected to differing degrees.
“A lot of these developing countries haven’t had the expertise to do the research I am focusing on. The timing of spawning was not known in Kenya or other parts of East Africa, and I wanted to fill this big knowledge gap.”
Sangeeta moved to Australia from Fiji with her family in 1989. After completing her undergraduate studies, she worked in the Moreton Bay Marine Park and then in Fiji with the World Wide Fund for Nature co-ordinating their regional marine program in the South Pacific. She has spent the past five years living and working in Kenya.
“When I was starting my PhD I was more interested in the impacts of coral bleaching on coral reefs, but Peter Harrison (Associate Professor at Southern Cross University) put the idea in my head to look at coral reproduction on reefs in Kenya. We looked at a world map and he pointed to the Western Indian Ocean and told me that we knew virtually nothing about coral reproduction patterns in the region, and on equatorial reefs such as those in Kenya,” she said.
“He made me realise this was a chance to do something no one had done before.”
Following years of research and many hours in the water, Sangeeta has documented for the first time how and when the coral spawn in that region.
“On the Great Barrier Reef here in Australia the coral spawning is a very concentrated synchronised event across hundreds of kilometres of reefs. More than a quarter of known species on the Great Barrier Reef spawn within a one-week period just after the full moon in the austral spring and summer, and it is consistent and predictable each year,” she said.
“In Kenya the spawning is also synchronised to the lunar night, but we have a much more extended reproductive season. Individual species spawn over two to five months.”
The spawning occurs during the north-east monsoon season, when the seas and winds are calmer and the water temperature is warmer.
Sangeeta said isolation was one of the biggest challenges she faced during her study.
“There were only a few people who I could talk to on a regular basis about my research, but I did come back every year for two to three months to meet with my supervisor (Peter Harrison) and we were in regular email and phone contact while I was in Kenya,” she said.
Once her PhD is completed, Sangeeta said she planned to work again in developing countries in the area of coral reef conservation and science.
