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Welcome!
This site is dedicated to communicating the research conducted by the Baum Lab on Kiritimati Atoll. For more information about the Baum Lab visit our website. Kiritimati (pronounced "Christmas"), an island comprising over half of the Republic of Kiribati’s total land area (01°52′N 157°24′W, Northern Line Islands), is the world’s largest coral atoll. Kiritimati is one of Kiribati’s least densely populated islands, however, the majority of the population (over 5000 people) is concentrated in a small area on the north-western tip of the island. The people of Kiritimati (the I-Kiribati) are dependent on the reef’s resources for subsistence fishing, aquarium fish exports, and sport fishing tourism. This has resulted in an extreme fishing gradient from the northwest coast to the remote uninhabited end of the atoll, thus presenting an ideal laboratory for the study and understanding of coral reef conservation. 
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Ecological monitoring has been ongoing since 2007, this has included fish censuses, urchin counts, and benthic composition surveys. Additional projects are conducted, such as urchin predation experiments, collections for stable isotope analysis, and coral symbiodinium analysis. Read more about our underwater projects. |
The 2015-2016 El Niño provided an opportunity to assess how impacts of this climatic event, such as increased thermal stress, impacts the coral ecosystem at Kiritimati. This will give insight into the resilience of these systems, and can inform us about how they will respond to future climate changes. We have published some findings from the corals and reef fish and have more papers in the works. We are also now watching the reefs post heatwave to document their recovery. Stay tuned! Explore what we have found so far on the lab website! |
Socioeconomic surveys on Kiritimati have been conducted in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2019 to assess how fishing and climate change affect coral reef health, to better understand the links between reef health and human welfare, and to help develop potential management solutions. Read more about our socioeconomic surveys with residents of Kiritimati. |
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The Baum Lab
University of Victoria Department of Biology PO Box 1700 STN CSC Victoria BC, V8W 2Y2 Canada |
