Marine and Coastal Ecology of the Indo-Pacific: The Thailand Project

Join us this winter as we explore the Indo-Pacific, one of the world's most distinctive coastal regions. The coastal waterways of the Indo-Pacific support the highest diversity of tropical marine life found anywhere on Earth, with hundreds of coral species and many more kinds of fish intimately co-evolved to this complex habitat. Unlike ecosystems on land, this rich habitat manifests innumerable acts of predation, competition, and cooperation that are easy to view and observe in real time.

Our coastal and marine ecology program offers an ecological survey of key habitats in a part of the Indo-Pacific that includes southern Thailand and the peninsular part of Malaysia. An outgrowth of our previous Thailand program, this course provides a more focused study of a region that is one of the most enthralling for ecologists, and which has achieved special concern in a world of shifting climate and carbon-balance.

In many of the places we will visit, local people fish for a living. Their operations range from small-scale cast nets to large commercial trawlers. In addition, there are shrimp farmers, charcoal collectors, agriculturalists, and tourism developers, so human ecology is a second major theme of our program. In some places, appropriate, small-scale harvesting of marine resources offers a sustainable local lifestyle; in other places, human activity is disrupting the environment. And even seemingly tranquil coastal communities are vulnerable to external environmental threats. Our field studies will allow us to view and experience these complex challenges first hand.

As planned, the program will begin in Bangkok, Thailand. Our route is southward through Southern Thailand to the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. En route, we will make extended visits to islands groups and significant coastal sites along the way.

THE PROJECT

Team members will spend six weeks exploring the beautiful Indo-Pacific habitats. Within this great region, we will study coastal mangrove forests, sea-grass estuaries, low wave-energy beach communities and fringing coral reefs on outer islands where reefs grow well in the crystal-clear offshore waters. Field sites include the tropical island archipelagoes of Koh Surin and Adang (Thailand) and Pualau Perhentian (Malaysia).  Extensive, well-developed fringing coral reefs occur in all these areas. The remoteness of these island groups, combined with uncommonly effective fish conservation efforts, account for the large size and diversity of fish species associated with the reefs in these areas.

In the islands of Surin, Adang, and Perhentian, team members will have the opportunity to participate in coral monitoring efforts. Activities include surveys and counts of selected coral reef fish species, some of which are brightly colored and spectacularly well-adapted to their spatially complex marine habitat. We may also use GPS and underwater digital photography to document changes on selected reef-patches. This information is interesting to us, and quite valuable to Thai marine scientists and the staff of the national parks who are responsible for managing this resource.

Mainland coastal sites are another important component of the program. These include Khao Samroi Yot National Park, the “mountain of three hundred pinnacles,” on the east coast of Peninsular Thailand where rugged crags of limestone crop out beyond an intertidal mangrove estuary that is being restored following much unsustainable encroachment by shrimp farmers. At Ranong, on the opposite (Andaman) side of the Thai Peninsula, we’ll visit an old growth mangrove forest whose trees emerge from coastal mudflats. The zone between the tides presents distinctive ecological challenges for trees and the animals they support. The research facility at Ranong provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the mangrove ecosystem.

Hat Chao Mai National Park in Trang Province is another of our spectacular study sites on the Andaman Coast of southern Thailand. With its extensive sea-grass beds (essentially meadows that flourish on the sandy bottom of calm tropical bays where water are shallow and clear), the area around Trang supports Thailand’s only population of dugongs, gentle, grazing marine-mammals sometimes called sea cows that are kin to the Caribbean manatee.

The third area of emphasis is ecosystem management, evaluating strategies to mitigate existing threats to the coastal ecology, and an analysis of threats posed by the most probable climate change scenarios. With its high population density, cities are an important component of the Southeast Asian ecosystem. Cities we plan to visit on this program include Bangkok, Thailand where we will begin the program and Hatyai, Thailand where it will end. We also plan to spend a few days in Penang, Malaysia an island city that shows the importance of Chinese merchants. This coastal project presents a singular opportunity to assess major issues affecting coastal and marine ecology in Thailand today, and to discover possible strategies to help meet Thailand’s and Malaysia’s environmental challenges. By the end of the project all of us will have encountered a vast array of coastal species and ecosystem diversity, learned how to conduct marine and ecological field studies, and gained valuable hands-on research experience.  In-country fee: $1950.

Read the full course description:

PROJECT LEADERS