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Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems pp 215–229Cite as

The Chagos Archipelago

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Part of the book series: Coral Reefs of the World ((CORW,volume 12))

Abstract

The Chagos Archipelago, located in the central Indian Ocean and officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, contains some of the most remote reefs in the Indian Ocean. The Chagos Archipelago is comprised of a series of atolls, including the largest atoll in the world, the Great Chagos Bank. Records from surveys of mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs; reefs 30–150 m depth) in Chagos stretch back to 1905, with more extensive work conducted in the 1970s and post-2010. Coral and fish communities vary considerably with depth and among habitat types. Coral cover generally declines with increased depth across the shallow reef to MCE depth gradient, though in several locations close to 100% scleractinian coral cover has been observed on MCEs. Consistent with earlier studies, we identify five coral species as indicative of Chagos MCEs. Recently collected fish community data are analyzed to illustrate, for the first time, patterns in reef fish species richness, abundance, biomass, and trophic groups across a shallow to upper-MCE depth gradient (0–60 m). Fish species richness, abundance, and biomass declined with increased depth, while richness, abundance, and trophic group patterns were also influenced by habitat type (seaward versus lagoonal reef). To date, the vast majority of MCE research in Chagos has focused on upper mesophotic depths. We recommend future work consider the full MCE depth range within the Chagos Archipelago.

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Acknowledgments

DAAB was funded by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) PhD studentship. DAAB, CEIH, and ADR thank the Bertarelli Foundation for funding field work on MCEs in the Chagos Archipelago. ADR and GR acknowledge the Oxford Martin School for funding during the course of the present study. We thank Charles Sheppard and Anne Sheppard for helpful discussions that informed this manuscript and Michel Pichon and Carden Wallace for helpful consideration of scleractinian coral taxonomy and classification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, John Krebs Field Station, Oxford, UK

    Dominic A. Andradi-Brown, Catherine E. I. Head, Gwilym Rowlands & Alex D. Rogers

  2. Ocean Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, Washington, DC, USA

    Dominic A. Andradi-Brown

  3. School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Zena Dinesen

  4. Centre for Marine Futures, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

    David M. Tickler

Authors
  1. Dominic A. Andradi-Brown
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  2. Zena Dinesen
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  3. Catherine E. I. Head
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  4. David M. Tickler
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  5. Gwilym Rowlands
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  6. Alex D. Rogers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dominic A. Andradi-Brown .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yossi Loya

  2. National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Silver Spring, MD, USA

    Kimberly A. Puglise

  3. Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Museum of Tropical Queensland, Queensland Museum Network, Townsville, QLD, Australia

    Tom C.L. Bridge

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Andradi-Brown, D.A., Dinesen, Z., Head, C.E.I., Tickler, D.M., Rowlands, G., Rogers, A.D. (2019). The Chagos Archipelago. In: Loya, Y., Puglise, K., Bridge, T. (eds) Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_12

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