Ambon and Halmahera fieldwork: Mini-blog 3 – Surveying Ambon’s reefs

October 9, 2019October 9, 2019 / Maarten De Brauwer / 1 Comment

In the previous fieldwork blog I wrote that we were about to leave on the boat to survey coral reefs around Ambon. So let me walk you through how our first week went.

Leaving Ambon took a bit more effort than expected, getting the necessary pre-departure paperwork signed off took 6 hours instead of 10 minutes, but we finally managed to leave late afternoon. We left under a rather gloomy sky, with grey clouds and scattered rain showers seeing us out of the bay instead of the bright sunshine we hoped for. But with an overnight boat trip ahead of us to get to the first sites, we could maybe wake up to blue skies.

That, unfortunately, was not meant to be…

Gloomy Ambon skies

When I mention “dive expedition in Indonesia”, most people tend not to imagine grey skies and unrelenting rain, but the lush tropics wouldn’t be quite as lush without lots and lots of rain! Throughout the week we had plenty of rain, sometimes so much we had to postpone dives because of the limited visibility at the surface: the boat driver needs to be able to see the divers at the surface to pick them up when surveys are done.

Rainy days

Maria and Gino

But we had come to Ambon to study coral reefs, so (mostly) undeterred by the rain, we hopped in and started our work! The first thing we noticed was a conspicuous lack of…coral. We started surveys in an area with a lot of human fishing activity, and it showed, big time. We did not hear any blasts while diving, but there was a lot of evidence of dynamite fishing. Entire reefs were reduced to rubble, some places even had large bomb craters, something I had never seen before. I dread to think about the size of the bomb and the immediate impacts of its blast. A lot of explosive power is required to leave a 40cm deep, 1.5m wide crater underwater!

It wasn’t all bad news though, some places were showing slow signs of recovery, which could mean they hadn’t been bombed for a while. There were still some large fish left, nowhere near as many as there should be, but I did spot a few large groupers and emperors, and even a few adult blacktip reef sharks. We saw encrusting algae and small coral slowly starting to take hold in some places, although they were still a long way from becoming a real coral reef again. I would estimate it could easily take another 50-100 years for these sites to become a fully functional reef, even if they were left in peace and there were no other impacts.

Crater caused by dynamite fishing

Dynamited reef, now a rubble field

After a couple of days of rain and survey dives that made our hearts ache, the team’s morale (or at least mine) had seen better days. Luckily, two things happened: we moved on to sites that had less fishing pressure and the sun started shining!

This part of the trip brought home just how rich coral reefs can be if you just use them in a less destructive way. Sites with very high and diverse coral cover, big schools of fish, lots of invertebrates, funky critters, everything you could want in a dive. This time our only regret was that the tight schedule didn’t give us time to explore each site more thoroughly. Between trying to count and identify large schools of mixed fish species, processing eDNA samples and entering data, little time was left to do anything else than eat and prepare for the next dive. Not that I’m complaining though, being able to work on reefs like this is a privilege that never gets old.

We were also privileged to see some of Ambon’s funky critters. During quite a few dives we came across ghostpipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus and S. cyanopterus), a rare sight on standard coral reef surveys. Our invertebrate expert had his work cut out counting a variety of nudibranchs, shrimp, cowries, and anything in between. Even the algae crew got more fish than they bargained for when a giant frogfish (Antennarius commersoni) decided to swim by and say hello.

Counting and identifying the fish on a reef can be a challenge

Coral reef near Nusa Laut

Despite some adverse weather and a slow start, we finished surveys within the planned time and arrived back in Ambon Bay two days ago. Our two days on land were put to good use, catching up on data entry and admin, meetings, and even catching a movie last night (Joker, pretty good actually). Tomorrow we leave at first light for a longer trip. We are headed to Halmahera, an area where precious little information exists on the health of coral reefs. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to write an update from Ternate in about 6 days!

New research project: diversity in Wallacea

June 11, 2019June 11, 2019 / Maarten De Brauwer / 6 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about starting an exciting new project at the University of Leeds. At the time I didn’t go into details, but now that I’m a few months in and I am starting to understand what is going, so it’s time to enlighten you as well.

Coral reef critter research coming up!

For the next two years I’m part of a team that will study marine biodiversity on coral reefs in central Indonesia. The overarching goal of of the project is to improve the management and conservation of coral reefs by discovering how impacts such as pollution or overfishing change the way coral reefs function. After all, the best way to start solving a problem is by properly understanding it.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than the lofty big goal as the title of the project indicates: “Gradients of marine biodiversity and linkages with eDNA across the Wallacea Region”. There are two components to the project: traditional visual surveys and environmental DNA (“eDNA”) surveys. We will use both methods to create ecological networks and see how they differ when they are threatened by different impacts.

At this point you might be asking a few (logical) questions:

Where is the Wallacea region and why do you go there?
What is eDNA?
What is an ecological network?
Why should I care? I came to this site to read about critters!

The Wallacea region is the central part of Indonesia, from Lombok eastward almost all the way to Papua, and up all the way to Halmahera (check out the map below). It was named after Alfred Russel Wallace, the scientist who, together with Darwin, developed the theory of evolution. The region represents an interesting boundary area where fauna and flora from the Asian and Australian continents meet. So it is home to some amazing wildlife, but also to a large human population that depends on natural resources to survive. The marine diversity in the region has not been studied very well (except for a few local exceptions), so finding out how healthy the marine ecosystems are is quite important.

The Wallacea Region

Environmental DNA (eDNA for short), is a relatively new method to detect species. I have written about it extensively here if you want a long explanation and background. The method detects tiny fragments of DNA in the water column that are shed through poop, mucus, etc. By filtering and analysing a scoop of water, we can tell what animals (and plants, microbes, etc) live in the water nearby. It’s pretty powerful and very exciting, but still needs a lot of additional testing to know just how precise it is compared to other survey methods.

I will then build ecological network models with all the data we collect. The easiest way to imagine what those are, is to see them as a different kind of food web. Where food webs focus on who eats who, we are more interested in who lives close to who, and who interacts with who. In the ideal situation I will include all the information on fish, corals, algae, invertebrates (crabs, sea stars, etc.) in one big model which will show how they rely on each other. More importantly, it will also show what happens with the networks if sites are overfished or polluted and how that differs from untouched sites.

Species-interaction-networks-at-Norwood-Farm-Somerset-UK-revised-from-Pocock-et-al

Example of an interaction network on land, figure by Bohal et al. 2013. Source here.

So yes, my job for the next few years is less critter-focused than before, but it doesn’t mean I will be ignoring them! Besides the obvious fact that there’s a lot of cool critters to be found on the coral reefs I’ll be visiting, I am still involved in a few very cool projects on the side. It’s too early to go into details, but more seahorse and seadragon work is coming up, and even some exciting pygmy seahorse news as well! I’ll regularly be posting updates on the Wallacea project, as well as more critter features, so stay tuned 🙂

Marine biodiversity in Oman: Mini-blog 1

November 30, 2018 / Maarten De Brauwer / 2 Comments

Great news, I am on the road again for a new fieldwork adventure! Three days ago I left Perth to join a great team of researchers for a week of marine science action in Oman. I will try to post a few updates as we go along, much in the same way as during my last fieldwork trip.

On our way to the Musandam reefs

The trip is organised Dr. Joey DiBattista and Dr. Alyssa Marshell, as a collaboration between the Australian Museum and the Department of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Joey and Alyssa received funding from the council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) to study the fish biodiversity in Oman and to develop methods to monitor that fish diversity more efficiently. Ultimately, the goal of our work here is to support the management of marine resources in the region.

Khasab – Musandam. Photo: Chris Goatley

Most of the trip consists of diving in different places across the country. I am writing this blog in Musandam, a stunningly beautiful area in the north of the country. We are surveying fish, collecting fish and water samples for genetic research, and testing new methods to collect environmental DNA. We will be working here a few more days before flying back to Muscat.

Musandam water looking fine! Photo: Chris Goatley

The last leg of our trip is dedicated to a workshop in the Sultan Qaboos University During the workshop, local and Australian scientists will give presentations on their work, and most of us will also present some of our own work that might be of interest to researchers in the region. I’m very much looking forward to the discussions and ideas that will come out of this workshop, they’re one of the more exciting aspects of these kind of research trips!

Well, that and the diving and exploring parts of course 😉

Keep an eye on the blog in the coming days, I’ll post a few updates as we go along!

Musings on the 4th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium

June 9, 2018June 9, 2018 / Maarten De Brauwer / Leave a comment

I am writing this blog while in transit in Kuala Lumpur, traveling from Cebu (the Philippines) to Perth. I was in Cebu to attend the Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS 2018). In the past I have written about the reasons why as a scientist I like visiting conferences, such as IPFC or ICRS. Those reasons have not changed: hearing about new research, meeting up with colleagues and friends, discussing new collaborations, and sharing my own research with people working on similar topics.

What was different atthis conference, is that it was my first international conference after submitting my PhD thesis. This was also the first time that I was invited as a keynote speaker (for a mini-symposium that was part of the bigger conference). The conference had a strong regional focus, so many of the people attending conduct their research in the same region as I do. So there were a lot more opportunities for developing new collaborative projects than on larger conferences.

: Presenting my first keynote on the Sustainable Coral Reef mini-Symposium parallel to APCRS 2018 (Photo credit: Sugbu Turismo)

Here are some of my impressions while the last days are still fresh in mind….kind of fresh at least, the conference organisation was very generous in the amount of free San Miguel beer provided at the dinner last night 😉

More than other conferences I attended, APCRS 2018 had a strong management and practical feel to it. Many conversations I had and most of the presentations I heard had a strong underlying theme of developing solutions that could actually be used for managing reefs. What really made it interesting was that not only scientists, but also some managers and conservation organisations were presenting their work. I might be a bit too optimistic, but I feel that in the last years, many of the idealistic, but completely unrealistic ideas are being replaced by a more realistic approach that does not turn a blind eye to the real problems.

: Presenters of the Sustainable Coral Reef Tourism session (Photo credit: Sugbu Turismo)

Talking about how to use research results for management with the people working for organisations like Reefcheck, GreenFins, or CMAS was sometimes confronting, but also a great way to start having an impact beyond mere suggestions in scientific papers. Besides discussing future projects that will result in helping management, I also had some very inspiring talks with other researchers. If all goes well, the end of 2018 could become even more fun than I already expected. Hopefully more on that later!

There was another interesting theme that kept on coming back through many of the conversation I had: “What are we trying to achieve as scientists?” Or even more fundamental: “Why are we REALLY doing what we do”? It might seem obvious; most scientific papers will state that one way or another they want to understand the world better, and usually that they want to make a positive difference. But it can be interesting to ask if that’s what we are really doing? To what extent are we actually making a difference, or just following our curiosity? Are we willing to do the extra effort that is needed to truly have a positive impact? Or are we sometimes forgetting about the world beyond academia and writing papers because that is what you do when you want a career in science?

There is no judgement in any of these motivations, most of the scenarios are equally valuable. But realising why you do the research that you do, might help you to be more focused and get the results you aim for. At least it does for me…

This conference was probably one of the most productive and inspirational conferences I have attended since I started my PhD in 2014. I am very much looking forward to the next one in Singapore in 2022, and the new projects that I’ll be working on in between!