Kenya - Coral Reef Resilience Studies

Abstract

Activities supported by CORDIO in Kenya started in 1999, focusing on a long term coral reef monitoring programme in the Kiunga Marine Reserve to track recovery of reefs from the 1998 El Nino coral bleaching event (Obura, 1999). In addition, a range of biological studies were supported (Obura et al., 2000), including studies on temperature/UV interactions, benthic community structure, coralrecruitment and bleaching, coral/zooxanthellae dynamics, macro- and micro-algal community structure and bio-erosion, many of them led by scientists from the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. Community-based participatory monitoring activities started in 1997 in the Diani-Chale area of southern Kenya were also added to CORDIO's portfolio, to facilitate raising awareness among resource users of the need for management, and to trial new techniques for generating data on coral reef status where resources and technical staff are limited. See reports in Linden and Sporrong (1999), Souter et al. (2000), Linden et al. (2002). At the end of 2004/beginning of 2005, CORDIO activities in Kenya included several long term monitoring initiatives and associated research projects to improve interpretation of the monitoring information. These are being integrated into a more unified structure to research the resilience of Kenya's reef ecosystems in relation to thermal stress and mass bleaching impacts caused by global warming. This report outlines how the various components of CORDIO's coral monitoring and research programme contribute to this overall structure of studying resilience.