Cutting-Edge Science Meets Centuries-Old Tradition

A Picture of Health

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

The Temae Reef off of Mo‘orea was fully functional in 2008, before a crown-of-thorns starfish invasion and cyclone left it a wreck.

Scientists are studying reef recovery on Mo‘orea with new genetic identification tools, and investigating whether the accelerating pace of global and local change has affected the ecosystem’s resilience.

(See what photographer David Liittschwager found in a cubic foot of Temae reef in 2008.)

Published February 17, 2011

Never Fade Away

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

Pape Mape, an 84-year-old Tahitian elder from the island of Mo‘orea, is documenting, with his son Bruno, all of his ancestral knowledge about the relationship between land and sea, before it is lost for good.

What Mape knows about his island and the ocean that surrounds it has passed through generations. But now it may turn in a new direction, serving as a bridge to the latest western science.

Bringing the two together is one of the missions of Hinano Teavai-Murphy, president of the Association Te Pu Atitia and associate director of the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station. Formed in 2002, Atitia is a community-based nonprofit that aims to create clearer channels of communication between island elders like Mape and younger generations, but also with the scientists who visit and live on the island.

(Read more about the work that Mape and Teavai-Murphy are doing.)

Published February 17, 2011

Fragile Words

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

Pape Mape gives a cultural tour of the lagoon he has fished his whole life. Elders can now start to validate their observations of the natural world with science, and scientists can ground truth their data with the long-term observations of the community, according to those working on a partnership between the two.

“We have the data, we’ve lived here all our lives,” Mape says. Too often in the past, “good” advice from the scientists about how to manage the natural resources of Mo‘orea has come without input from the community.

With a background in education, Hinano Teavai-Murphy at the Atitia Center has been able to gradually extract and document the stories of the elders. “It was a big challenge,” she remembers. “It took us five years to fight, gently, to exchange ideas and to convince and to say if we don’t do anything we will lose all the knowledge that you have, that our ancestors kept for medicinal purposes, voyaging, and more.”

Published February 17, 2011

A Comeback?

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

A once vibrant and colorful section of Temae Reef off the coast of Mo‘orea has been reduced to rubble by a 2009 crown-of-thorns invasion and a 2010 cyclone.

Scientists say they think the starfish-devastated parts of the reef will come back. Growing populations of herbivorous fish are eating algae off the dead coral, suggesting that the system won’t remain in an algal state like other crushed reefs that have not fully recovered.

“Herbivorous fish are going like gangbusters, and that’s a good sign,” explains Chris Meyer, a zoologist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution and Biocode Project director. “Moreover there are plenty of smaller animals still living within the nooks and crannies of the reef.”

Biocode is a four-year, $5 million effort to collect, document, and genetically sequence the non-microbial biodiversity of the island. When the project wraps up this year, it will be the first time a complex tropical ecosystem has been catalogued in such detail. Biocode scientists have come from around the world to find and “barcode” the species they specialize in—from fungi, snails, insects and plants, to algae, crabs, marine worms, and coral. DNA bar coding uses genetic markers to identify species and offers a simple, standardized way to analyze lifecycles and interactions.

Published February 17, 2011

Waiting for Recovery

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

The chances of recovery this time are muddied by new challenges—climate change, coral bleaching from increasing water temperatures, ocean acidification, and land use changes on Mo‘orea that could load lagoons with nutrient-rich sediments that affect fish nursery productivity. To add insult to injury, Mo‘orea’s north shore, where the starfish had their fill, was hit by Cyclone Oli in 2010, which turned much of the dead coral into rubble.

“In 2006 dead coral heads were hard to find,” Meyer says. “Now it’s ‘How many do you want?’ ” In less then four years the outer reef of the north shore went from as alive as it gets to between two and five percent live coral.

(Read more about the Biocode Project.)

Published February 17, 2011

Reef Relief

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

With continued monitoring and sampling, the Biocode database may also allow scientists to better understand biological disturbances, whether that’s crown of thorns or an invasive plant, by identifying previously unidentifiable larvae in the water, or seeds in the soil, before they grow up to become an invasion, Meyer explains. “It allows us to use these digital signatures to see things that aren’t established yet,” he adds.

Published February 17, 2011

Reef Research

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

Biocode Project Director Christopher Meyer shows NationalGeographic.com writer Tasha Eichenseher a crown-of-thorns starfish at Temae Reef, Mo‘orea.

The crown of thorns (Acanthaster planci, or taramea in Tahitian) has menacing, poisonous spikes and a voracious appetite. It literally sucks the life out of reef communities. The starfish feast on coral polyps, leaving an empty white skeleton and ransacked home for other marine species before moving on to the next meal.

Published February 17, 2011

The Death Star

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

A crown of thorns clings to a coral skeleton.

In less then four years, the coral on the outer reef of the north shore of Mo‘orea went from as alive as it gets—between 60 and 70 percent live coral—to between two-to-five percent alive as the starfish literally sucked the life out of the reef.

It is not uncommon for crabs that rely on the coral for food and shelter to pick at the starfish in an attempt to defend their homes.

Published February 17, 2011

Ancient Star

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

If you ask island elders, and scientists who have been on Mo‘orea for a while, they will tell you that a crown-of-thorns invasion happens every 20 years or so. Stories of the starfish creeping over the reef shelf and into the lagoon are part of anci­ent island chants.

Published February 17, 2011

Message in a Bottle

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

Specimens of marine life await analysis at the Gump Research Station on Mo‘orea. One of the more ambitious scientific research efforts on the island is called the Mo‘orea Biocode Project—a four-year, $5 million effort to collect, document, and genetically sequence the non-microbial biodiversity of the island.

“Ultimately, we want to answer the question: how much biodiversity is needed to ensure ecosystems continue to function?” says Neil Davies, Biocode’s principal investigator. “It should be clear that this is a difficult question to answer if you don’t know how much biodiversity you have in the first place.”

This report was made possible with funding from the Christensen Fund.

Published February 17, 2011