Large swathes of coral reef that died after being lifted to the surface following an earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2005, are providing scientists with an opportunity to witness reef recovery and colonisation in action.Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Program (WCSIP) and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (ARCCECRS) headed to the area to investigate the condition of the reefs on and around the Indonesian island of Simeulue following the quake. They found that the March 2005 earthquake, which measured 8.9 on the Richter scale and caused 839 fatalities, elevated an estimated 400 kilometres of coastline by between 80 and 120 centimetres, exposing extensive areas of coral to the air.“This is a story of mass mortality on a scale rarely observed,” said Stuart Campbell from the WCSIP. “In contrast to other threats, such as coral bleaching, none of the corals uplifted by the earthquake have survived.”

On a positive note, however, the team found that areas previously too deep for coral and associated organisms were now being colonised by those species worst affected by the quake.“This is a unique opportunity to document a process that occurs maybe once a century and promises to provide new insights into coral-recovery processes that, until now, we could only explore on fossil reefs,” said Dr Andrew Baird of ARCCECRS.