The coral reef of Tiahura in Moorea has been studied since 1971 being the first qualitative and quantitative survey of main reef life of French Polynesia. This survey, assimilated to a point zero, was achieved on the fringing and the barrier reef of Tiahura to characterise the structure of its communities.

Tiahura Radial in 1971

Tiahura Radial in 2014

In order to study long term variabilité of populations and compositions in Tiahura over a time lapse of more than ten years and spread over whole coral reef, two steps were necessary:

• Research the temporal inter annual (or not) surveys, but having started before 1990, when the first ATPP survey was launched.
• Update those temporal surveys by sampling, using the same protocols, the matching populations and communities.

This study provides an image of the long term variability of the communities of the coral reef of Tiahura, complementing the one from ATPP.
These ecological data cover in fact a longer period of time (since 1971) and focus on all the geomorphological units of the coral reef of Tiahura.

Map showing the geographical location of the sampling stations at Tiahura in the lagoon:

1/ J. Fagerstrom radial in 1992 where are located the 20 coral sampling units.

2/ sampling zone of the ATPP program on the barrier reef.

3/ pioneer radial of Tiahura used in 1971, 1978, 1980 and 1995.

4/ Tiahura radial used in 1992. This radial is fictive and only served as a frame for the 10 sampling stations of the barrier reef for the ATPP program.

5/ lagoon fish sampling stations of the Long term Tiahura, also named "série Galzin".

6/ stations d'échantillonnage des coraux de C. Bouchon et des poissons de M. Harmelin-Vivien et de Y. Bouchon.
=>very useful data because they are the only ones describing live coral cover in Tiahura before 1982. See references below to access them.