Water Quality Monitoring Koh Tao

Biodiversity is a defined as the number of different species in an area, and is a great measure of the health of any ecosystem from jungle to open ocean! We are incredible lucky to have an incredible diversity of reef building (scleractinian) and soft coral species in the Indo-Pacific, with Koh Tao showcasing lots of beautiful coral species of all shapes and colours. Unfortunatley, with historic bleaching and disturbance events, coral diversity in some areas has decreased, having a knock on effect on the diversity of other marine species found there. Our coral genera diversity research project aims to provide information on the relative abundance and diversity of different coral types around Koh Tao, forming links between stressors and the presence or absence of specific coral types. 

 

Researching coral diversity accross sites requires visiting a number of different areas, sampling a range of depths with varying anthropogenic activity and exposure. Interns at the Roctopus ecoTrust are trained in collecting high resolution images of coral reef at regular intervals, and identifying corals to genus level from these photos later in the ecoTrust office. From this database, we can identify areas of high biodiversity, as well as relative reef health and any areas where active restoration of specific coral species many be required. 

 

 

Monitoring Abiotic Factors Koh Tao
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