Bertarelli-Annual-Report-2024-LR - Flipbook - Page 30
28
Bertarelli Foundation
Jyodee
Sanassy-Pilly
PhD Student (graduated 2023)
Bangor University, UK
Student: Monitoring reef health (Phase I)
“My research provides
insights into the changes
in contemporary coral
reef communities and
the functions that they
provide following global
scale disturbance events.”
Jyodee’s PhD looked at depth zonation patterns
of benthic communities and reef framework
production on the remote reefs of the Chagos
Archipelago in the Central Indian Ocean. These
reefs have been monitored since 1978. Assessing
the changes in coral reef benthic communities
and their geo-ecological functions before and
after the recent 3rd global bleaching event
have important implications for understanding
both ecological and spatial resilience of coral
reefs in the Anthropocene. Jyodee’s research
use isolated reefs as an ocean observatory, as
remoteness from direct human impacts provides
a benchmark against which the performance of
other reefs, in the Indian Ocean and beyond, can
be assessed.
PhD Graduates
2023
Margaux Steyaert
PhD Student (graduated 2023)
University of Oxford and Zoological Society
of London’s Institute of Zoology, UK
Student: Coral reef biodiversity (Phase I)
“I am interested in how we
can re昀椀ne existing methods
and incorporate new ones
to survey coral reef health
and functioning in a more
holistic and communitybased approach.”
Margaux’s PhD thesis investigated the
diversity and drivers of tropical coral reef
cryptofauna communities in the Indian
Ocean. Using Artificial Reef Monitoring
Structures (ARMS), she sampled these
communities without harming the reef
structure. She also used genetic tools and
photography to analyse the diversity of
cryptic invertebrate communities. In doing
so, she described the baseline diversity
of these understudied communities and
examined how they are shaped by local
environmental conditions.
