Coral reefs support rich marine biodiversity, but reef-building corals are increasingly affected by climate change, bleaching, and human activity. Monitoring these ecosystems across large or deep areas can be challenging using conventional surveys alone.
This project uses environmental DNA to identify corals from traces of DNA found in seawater. The team has developed a method that can detect a wide range of reef-building coral groups found in Japan and is applying it across the Ryukyu Archipelago and other regions. Although this method has been developed for monitoring corals in Japan, it has been shown to be useful for monitoring coral reefs in the western North Pacific areas such as Taiwan and Palau."
The results in the Ryukyu Archipelago areas are presented through an online coral atlas available to the public, which documents the coral groups found in different locations. Making this information public allows researchers and local communities to better understand reef conditions and track changes over time. As the atlas expands, it could support more accessible and consistent reef monitoring and provide useful information for future conservation and management.
