CORCOPA

CORCOPA aims at reinforcing and sustaining the technical capacities of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Authorities for the management of the coral ecosystems of the Scattered Islands.

Abstract of the project:

The CORCOPA Project sets up and implements an innovative, operational and inexpensive monitoring tool, adapted to both the isolation of Europa and the pace of change being experienced by its ecosystems. The eco-acoustic approach, which is booming worldwide, is based on the passive recording of the “soundscape” and its ecological interpretation. By coupling spot recordings of soundscapes and visual assessments of reef stands the project team is planning to define the links between the characteristics of ambient sound and the ecological status of associated stands on Europa’s reefs in order to establish reference acoustic state. An autonomous underwater station is installed with the aim of performing and interpreting a continuous monitoring– daytime and night-time – of the sound environment of Europa’s reefs. Two major aspects of sound are studied: sound volume (SPL) and signal complexity (ACI), especially on frequency bands already identified as representative of the activity of certain reef organisms (examples: 0.1-0.5 kHz for fish , macro crustaceans, 2-20kHz for micro crustaceans). The detection of marine mammals is also envisaged. Finally, the team proposes to transmit to the TAAF (French Southern and Antarctic Lands authorities) a ready-to-use tool for non-specialists in the field of eco-acoustics to enable the long-term monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services and so contribute to better management.