INSEAD Annual Report 2023-20143 test - Flipbook - Page 38
36
Conservation
Impact
Bertarelli Foundation
Research on nutrient
pathways leads to
plans underway for
Indian Ocean
Researchers in the Marine Science programme
have pioneered understanding into how seabirds
provide important nutrients across tropical islands
and coral reefs. Most of these nutrients are in the
form of guano (excrement) which help drive nitrogen
and phosphorous cycles. The importance of these
nutrients has been demonstrated by measuring the
differences between coral reefs off islands with
healthy seabird populations and those with invasive
rats. Reef fish biomass is 48% higher off rat-free
islands and rates of two critical ecosystem functions,
grazing and bioerosion, over 3x times higher adjacent
to rat-free islands. Parrotfish around rat-free islands
grow 35% faster and their overall mean body size is
16% larger. While seabird nutrients do not enhance
resistance to coral bleaching, they may promote
reef recovery due to their positive influence on
calcareous algae and herbivorous fishes. This year,
the team’s latest paper (Benkwitt et al., 2022) shows
that seabird biomass is particularly important for
providing terrestrial and near-shore nutrients, while
seabird diversity is important for offshore nutrients.
