Around a hundred local, national and international scientists will take turns until November 10 as part of the “Planet Revisited” program.
Professional divers will bring up moss, algae, molluscs or crustaceans from several dozen sites. They will be studied in a laboratory installed on site.
The objective of the mission: to take photos of the identified animals, obtain their DNA sequence and their characterization, in addition to referencing them, summarizes Olivier Gros, researcher in marine ecology at the University of the Antilles and member of the expedition.
The program is supported by the Regional Biodiversity Agency of the Islands of Guadeloupe (ARB-IG), the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) and the French Biodiversity Office.
“The best biodiversity that we protect is that which we know,” Sylvie Gustave Dit Duflo, vice-president of the region and president of the ARB-IG, declared to the press.
After Les Saintes, explorations will continue at Marie-Galante and La Désirade.
A land component is also added to the research carried out at sea.
“We imagine that faunas have been isolated over geological time and that this is undoubtedly one of the axes for having endemic species,” explained Laure Corbari, coordinator of the marine component of the expedition and biology researcher. navy at MHNH.
In 2012 and 2015, the Karubenthos missions made it possible to inventory marine species off the coast of Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre, the two main islands of Guadeloupe.
While they represent only 0.08% of all land areas, the overseas territories concentrate 80% of French biodiversity.
