450 species: Study suggests Mozambique Channel is home to second most diverse coral reefs in the world
(Phys.org)—Researchers announced today that the results of a decade-long study has shown that the northern Mozambique Channel has the highest diversity of corals in the central, northern and western Indian Ocean. The researchers found that of 369 coral species identified so far in the region, sites in the northern Mozambique Channel had from 250-300 species, while sites in northern Kenya, the Gulf of Aden and the outer Seychelles islands had 200 or fewer species. The findings also suggest the total diversity of corals in the region may approach 450 species, equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef and Andaman islands, which are on the edges of the Coral Triangle, which would make the northern Mozambique Channel home to the second most diverse coral populations on the planet.