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Field mission · March 2025 ANTEA mission in Lifou: studying coral resilience to marine heatwaves |
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From 20 to 29 March 2025, the vessel ANTEA docked in Lifou, in the Loyalty Islands subdivision of New Caledonia, for the first mission of Work Package 2 (WP2) of the MaHeWa project. The overall objective was to study coral resilience and enhance management capabilities in the face of marine heatwaves — a critical issue in the context of climate change. A scientific team set out to explore 10 reefs across two distant sites, including key areas such as Santal Bay, Cap Aimé Martin, and Chateaubriand Bay. The team consisted of Gregory Lasne (Marine Biocenosis), Magalie Boussion (ENTROPIE, IRD), Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa (ENTROPIE, IRD), Jérémie Vidal-Dupiol (IHPE, Ifremer), and Fanny Houlbrèque (ENTROPIE, IRD).
During this mission, 305 colonies of three coral species were carefully tagged, georeferenced, and sampled, with 3 cm fragments collected under official and customary authorisations.
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