Mission Palau Project

Mission Palau.

The Palau mission is interested in the adaptation of corals to climate change and more particularly in response mechanisms to ocean acidification. Indeed, the archipelago of Palau has the particularity of having bays with significant pH variations, which is of interest to scientists.
 

vue palau
vue palau

corail
corail

coraux
coraux

Several study objectives were carried out:

  • Study of the importance of auto- and heterotrophy in Scleractinia living in an acidic site.
  • Study of the impact of acidification on the calcification mechanisms of Scleractinian corals.
  • Study of the impact of acidification on the state of health of Scleractinian corals.
  • Study of the mechanisms of regulation of the photosynthetic electron transfer chain in Scleractinian corals.
  • Study of the impact of acidification on the telomeric dynamics of Scleractinian corals.


The field work took place in 2017 and 2019. Samples of the corals were taken and transplanted in order to compare the low-pH sites and the control sites.
Today, the IRCAN laboratory at the Côte d'Azur University carries out physiological analyzes in conjunction with the CSM's Marine Biology laboratory, which is responsible for molecular analyses.

PALAU is a project developed by 5 Institutions, including the Scientific Center of Monaco (CSM), the Côte d'Azur University (UCA), the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the University of Liège (Belgium) and Bar Ilan University (Israel). It was made possible by the bequest of a Tara Pacific expedition station in January 2017.


Teams involved in the "Mission Palau" project::

  • Study of historical data:

CSM : Stéphanie Reynaud 
LSCE: Eric Douville et Marine Canesi (PhD student)

  • Study of current data:

CSM: Didier Zoccola
IRCAN (UCA): Paola Furla, Alice Rouan doctorante dans l'équipe d'Eric Gilson.

Collaborative articles:

  • M. Canesi, E. Douville, P. Montagna, L. Bordier, S. Caquineau, E. Pons-Branchus, G. Iwankow5, D. Allemand, TARA-Pacific consortium, S. Reynaud. Sea surface temperature reconstruction in the 1 Pacific Ocean using multi-elemental proxy in Porites and Diploastrea corals: application to Palau Archipelago. Submitted March 2021


Discover more about the project by watching this video!