Plastic pollution on the world's coral reefs.

Coral reefs are losing the capacity to sustain their biological functions. In addition to other well-known stressors, such as climatic change and overfishing, plastic pollution is an emerging threat to coral reefs, spreading throughout reef food webs, and increasing disease transmission and structural damage to reef organisms. Although recognized as a global concern, the distribution and quantity of plastics trapped in the world's coral reefs remains uncertain.

Trait-based approaches reveal that deep reef ecosystems in the Western Indian Ocean are functionally distinct.

Tropical deep reefs (>30 m) are biologically and ecologically unique ecosystems with a higher geographic reach to shallow (<30 m) reefs. Yet they are poorly understood and rarely considered in conservation practices. Here, we characterise benthic and fish communities across a depth gradient (10-350 m) in remote coral atolls in Seychelles, Western Indian Ocean.

Co-development, co-production and co-dissemination of scientific research: a case study to demonstrate mutual benefits.

Inadequate and inequitable distribution of research capacity and resources limits both the opportunity for leadership and participation in science. It also results in biases of effort, poor and misinterpretation of global patterns and the availability of limited usable knowledge for current challenges. Increased participation in ocean research and decision-making is needed to account for many stressors and challenges.

Turning the tide of parachute science.

Parachute science is the practice whereby international scientists, typically from higher-income countries, conduct field studies in another country, typically of lower income, and then complete the research in their home country without any further effective communication and engagement with others from that nation. It creates dependency on external expertise, does not address local research needs, and hinders local research efforts. As global hotspots of marine biodiversity, lower-income nations in the tropics have for too long been the subject of inequitable and unfair research practices.

The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states.

Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world's plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. We removed 25 tonnes at a cost of $224,537, which equates to around $10,000 per day of clean-up operations or $8,900 per tonne of litter.