Bertarelli-Annual-Report-2024-LR - Flipbook - Page 16
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Bertarelli Foundation
Measuring forest productivity © Nathan Hudson-Peacock
Red-footed booby © Marleen Stuhr
Island Reef Connections
Lead Investigator: Prof. Nick Graham,
Lancaster University
This team studies nutrient flows and feedback across
the seabird-island-reef system interface, particularly
where they are adversely affected by introduced rats.
Working at field sites in the Chagos Archipelago, the
Seychelles, and Tetiaroa in French Polynesia, the team
surveys a range of similar ecosystems at different stages
pre- and post-rat eradication and vegetation restoration.
This year, the forest team at the University of Oxford
produced the first direct measurements of forest
productivity on tropical islands showing clearly the
signature of seabird-derived nutrients through the trees
on the islands. Out on the reef, the team conducted
reciprocal transplants of corals between islands with
birds and those with rats. On bird islands, results have
shown faster reef recovery from bleaching events and
a two-times increase in surface area of some coral
species, a result confirmed in calcification studies
that show the nutrient benefit from bird islands to the
production of new reef which, in turn, replenishes atoll
islands by sand production.
Ultimately, results from sites that have been deratted and restored have allowed the team to
model the post restoration potential of sites such
as the Chagos Archipelago and the huge potential
increases in bird populations.
