Climate change and anthropogenic pressures threaten coral reefs around the world, causing biodiversity loss and a decrease in coral cover. With the current bleaching event, just a few years after the mass event of 2016, even more reefs are at risk and questions arise about how the coral reefs of the future will look. It is estimated that over 50% of coral reefs have disappeared since the 70s, and their survival is at high risk in the next decades. Are there organisms that have been overlooked and now need focus? This is the question Map the Giants, a project by the University of Milano-Bicocca, is now addressing.
When looking at and studying this ecosystem, we recognize its incredible biodiversity with hundreds of coral species being its main foundation. With different growth forms, shapes, colours, and sizes, corals have been fascinating scientists and people for many years and will continue to do so for the years to come. The last decades have seen raising concerns over the ability of future generations to experience and visit reefs around the world the same way that their grandparents have done. Surely, to date, numerous locations have seen a shift in dominant forms, from scleractinian corals to rubble fields or algae-dominated areas.
Worldwide the most impacted species have generally been fast-growing ones, that on one hand are particularly susceptible but, on the other hand, act almost as pioneering species, being able to recolonize areas in relatively short times. Fast-growing species can increase in size by over 30 cm in length every year, but some corals grow less than 1 cm every year. All of them can potentially grow forever.
In fact, with suitable conditions, coral colonies could grow indefinitely, reaching sheer sizes and several hundred years.
Many of us have surely heard of Big Momma, the huge coral colony found in American Samoa, measuring over 6m in height and 41 in circumference, estimated to be around 500 years of age. It is part of a National Marine Sanctuary, where the reef hosts numerous other very large colonies. How did they make it, whilst other corals suffered? Is Big Momma a unique colony in the marine world or are there many more?
As marine scientists, or passionate divers and snorkellers during our reef explorations, we surely remember that time when a giant Manta Ray crossed unexpectedly our path, or a huge turtle, a whale, or a shark… those iconic species, that we will never forget.
But if we now stop for one second, I am sure that at least once in our lifetime we have passed a very large coral colony, possibly not realizing that it was likely a centennial organism. A GIANT coral.
They are the marine equivalent of sequoias, the most impressive trees on Earth, and like them, they hold unique information on climate, environment, and biodiversity.
With more frequent bleaching events and a declared coral crisis, we risk losing even these GIANTS, those that have grown just few a centimetres every year and yet have reached metres in width. The most resistant, old, and charismatic corals – giant corals- represent ideal tools for tracing past oceanographic transformations and modelling responses to future environmental changes.
Furthermore, their resistance to current stressors requires in-depth studies to understand what makes these animals so resilient. How many giant corals are there? Where are they? What can we do to protect them? Are they the key to coral reefs’ resilience? This is how Map the Giant was born, just by looking at organisms we had seen many times, but for once, from a different perspective, realizing the inestimable value that single giant coral colonies have.
Map the Giant is a project that uses citizen science as a tool to locate the largest coral colonies in the world and relies on a network of scientists from every corner of the planet to study them. The project also aims to increase the general public’s awareness of corals and turn them into monuments. Regardless of the current jurisdiction behind it, we aim for them to be considered heroes of the oceans and survivors in our suffering reefs.
The project is coordinated by researchers and students of the University of Milano-Bicocca through MaRHE Center (Marine Research and Higher Education Center) which has been operating in the Maldives since 2009 and has, since then, conducted numerous researches on various fields from coral reef ecology, to sociology, and sustainable tourism.
Although the dedicated website welcomes entries from all over the world, the first records have come from the Maldives and include colonies with circumferences that exceed 50 metres. A variety of species, from Porites sp., to Heliopora coerulea, to Psammocora sp., and Pavona sp. have been located, measured, and sometimes even digitally reconstructed through photogrammetry. Citizen scientists are our eyes on the world and they are closely monitoring the impacts of the current bleaching event on the giants and some have started to show signs of paling. Will they make it?
We have received an entry from 2014 from Micronesia, a giant Diploastrea heliopora from Kosrae. Will it still be there? We heard of a huge Pavona from Japan, how is it doing?
Map the Giants wants to map giant colonies and wants everyone to know about them. If we didn’t even know they existed, how are we supposed to take care of them?
A correspondence piece on Nature highlighted the potential of the citizen-science-based project to find and protect these giants. “With reefs threatened across the globe, finding the giants will be a race against the clock. With a coordinated global effort, we stand a better chance of protecting them.”
The goal is to start from the Maldives to then expand to other parts of the world. The project is now raising funds through a crowdfunding campaign to conduct a scientific expedition to remote areas of the Maldives and collect even more data on GIANT CORALS.
YOUR HELP IS THE KEY!
If you want to support the project you can contribute to the crowdfunding campaign.
If you have seen any giant, please report it to mapthegiants!
About Authors
Dr. Simone Montano, the creator and promoter of “Map the Giants”, is a researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca who has been working on projects in the Maldives since 2009. His research has focused on symbiosis in tropical organisms, coral diseases, coral reef restoration, and other aspects of tropical marine ecology.
Federica Siena is a PhD student in Marine Science, Technology, and Management, she worked in the Maldives for seven years focusing on marine environmental education and CSR projects involving local communities. Her current research focuses on coral reef conservation and restoration through citizen science.