The TIC TAC project (2023-2025), funded by the Coral Sea Natural Park (Government of New Caledonia) and the IRD, aims to understand and anticipate the effects of marine heatwaves on New Caledonia’s remote coral reef ecosystems, which remain under-studied. This project proposes long-term monitoring of the Entrecasteaux and Chesterfield reefs, tracking environmental conditions and the health status of coral reefs. Permanent transects and temperature sensors, deployed during missions aboard the Amborella, enable the study of coral population dynamics through in-situ surveys and ecophysiological measurements, with the goal of understanding the associated risk of coral bleaching.
In parallel, the project seeks to improve our understanding of the predictability of marine heatwaves within New Caledonia’s economic zone. How far in advance, at what spatial scale, and with what level of confidence can the occurrence of a marine heatwave be predicted?
The results aim to facilitate the identification of vulnerable or resilient coral reef areas and to provide forecasting tools for coral bleaching risks, contributing to the preservation of reefs and coastal communities.
The TIC TAC project brings together 13 researchers from two main scientific communities: ecologists/ecophysiologists specializing in coral reefs, and physical oceanographers specializing in climate variability in the tropical Pacific.
The SAVE project study the Signature of rapid epigenetic Adaptation/Acclimatization to global warming in corals: a step Forward in Ecoystem management to saVE corals.
Earth is experiencing environmental changes accelerating biodiversity erosion. Coral reefs are one of the most affected ecosystems by these changes because it relies on corals that leave at their upper thermal limit. Corals intraspecific diversity is crucial for their maintenance since it defines the adaptive potential of organisms in the face of current changes. Intraspecific diversity initially encompasses genetic, phenotypic and functional diversity within a species. However, non-genetically encoded elements such as the epigenetic information and the holobiont composition can vary between individuals and contribute to phenotypic adjustment. This project will combine sequencing technologies and innovative approaches to: i) better understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of intraspecific diversity in corals; ii) understand the genetic, epigenetic and microbial mechanisms of coral adaptation/acclimatization to thermal stress and iii) identify biomarkers of thermotolerance to enhance ecosystem management. These will be achieved by studying in space and time natural coral populations along an ecological gradient of thermal stress frequency and an integrative Omic approach.
The RESOLAG-2 project aims to identify the most appropriate indicators for monitoring environmental variations and their impacts on the performance, physiological and health status of pearl oysters, as well as lagoon biodiversity, across multiple pearl farming lagoons with contrasting environmental conditions.
To achieve this, sentinel oysters will be deployed and monitored (biometrics, physiological status) from the transition of the cool season to the end of the warm season. A series of environmental parameters will be measured using instrumentation, and eDNA approaches will be applied.
The four islands selected for the study are:
Takapoto (Tuamotu)
Takaroa (Tuamotu)
Ahe (Tuamotu)
Mangareva (Gambier)
Funder(s): Marine Resources Directorate (DRM) of French Polynesia
Key Partners: UMR SECOPOL, UMR LEMAR, UAR CRIOBE, UMR ENTROPIE
The AMWI’ SOLU-BIOD Living Lab project aims to develop alternative integrated management strategies for watersheds in tropical islands and provide solutions to promote the resilience of tropical islands’ socio-ecosystems.
The AMWI Living Lab studies Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) applied to high volcanic islands in French Polynesia, spanning from mountain ridges to reef crests. These vulnerable meta-ecosystems face starkly contrasting pressures exerted by populations highly dependent on the ecosystem services they provide. The AMWI Living Lab’s activities are structured around four main questions, addressed through multiple actions:
-How do current management practices of terrestrial, coastal, and marine environments, combined with local socio-economic constraints and broader global pressures, shape the dynamics of Polynesian socio-ecosystems?
-Can innovative NbS be co-developed to contribute to the conservation and/or restoration of degraded meta-ecosystems in tropical island settings, ensuring sustainable access to bioresources and maintaining population health?
-How can adaptive management strategies be co-designed and tested with local stakeholders, drawing inspiration from customary resource management practices to create multifunctional, sustainable, and resilient watershed landscapes?
-Can bio-cultural indicators of the impact of designed and implemented NbS be jointly developed to ensure the long-term monitoring of marine and terrestrial biodiversity?
The AMWI Living Lab organizes its activities around two major themes:
-Transformative changes in agricultural and aquacultural practices, including reducing the use of harmful chemicals or animal-based feed and developing innovative anti-erosion systems.
-Restoration and enhancement of the productivity of coastal reefs and lagoons.
Funder(s): PEPR SOLUBIOD
Key Partners: UAR CRIOBE (CNRS, EPHE, PSL), UMR SECOPOL (IFREMER, UPF, ILM, IRD), UAR MSH-P (CNRS, UPF)
The MaHeWa-OO research project, funded by the LEFE-INSU (GMMC) program for three years (2024-2026), is highly complementary to the MaHeWa project. It focuses on marine heatwaves in the offshore and coastal areas of the Southwest Tropical Pacific, using the lagoons of New Caledonia as a case study. Its overarching goal is to develop the necessary research to establish reliable tools for monitoring and forecasting these extreme events and their characteristics around the territory and within the lagoons.
This project brings together engineers and researchers from the UMRs LEGOS, ENTROPIE, EIO, LOPS, and MARBEC, based in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and mainland France. They work in close collaboration with Mercator-Ocean. The project aims to enhance our physical understanding of marine heatwaves in the Southwest Pacific region and their characteristics using existing in-situ and satellite observations, as well as the GLORYS reanalysis.
At a regional scale, it also seeks to understand their impact on lower trophic levels (from nutrients to phytoplankton) through analyses of the GLORYS-PISCES reanalysis, satellite-derived ocean color data, and a “smart” buoy (HOPE) located offshore from Nouméa, which continuously monitors the early trophic stages of the ecosystem.
The project plans to study the predictability of marine heatwaves and their characteristics around New Caledonia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) over the short term (days to weeks in advance) using the ensemble forecasting approach developed at Mercator-Ocean.
Drawing heavily on existing in-situ observations from the SNO ReefTEMPS network and complementary dedicated observations (deployment of temperature sensors outside and inside key lagoons), as well as high-resolution satellite observations (via the production of high-resolution products) and the deployment of a very high-resolution (~100m) lagoon-scale numerical configuration, the project will analyze the role of fine-scale oceanic processes around the territories (such as mesoscale and sub-mesoscale processes, local upwellings, and internal tidal waves) and in New Caledonia’s lagoons (including the role of waves, reef passes, and different lagoon types, for example).
Finally, it will explore multivariate statistical downscaling methods to derive coastal temperature anomalies from offshore temperature data for key lagoons. If these methods prove reliable, the goal is to establish a lightweight, short-term alert system (a few days to weeks in advance). This system could be integrated into the operational monitoring and forecasting systems of CMEMS and Mercator-Ocean International.
The HEAT project (funded by the Pacific Fund for 2023-2025) is dedicated to understanding and forecasting marine heatwaves and their consequences across four territories: New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Fiji, and Wallis and Futuna. Its objective is to develop forecasting tools for heatwaves at various time scales, along with risk indicators related to human health and fisheries resources.
To achieve this, the project is structured around two research components and one component focused on the co-construction and dissemination of results and tools. These components aim to (1) Improve our understanding of past and future marine and terrestrial heatwaves, as well as their predictability within the economic zones of the four territories and along their coasts ; (2) Develop useful, tailored, and sustainable tools for forecasting risks to human health (in the case of terrestrial heatwaves) and fisheries resources (in the case of marine heatwaves).
This project brings together the expertise of the UMR LEGOS, the University of the South Pacific, IFREMER, Météo France, CSIRO, and the University of Tasmania.
