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Coral reefs may hold clue to global warming
January 20, 2000The El Nino effect, responsible for droughts, floods, cyclones, and storms, is an important aspect of climate change in this area. Information gleaned from the investigation will aid increased knowledge of global warming and may be used by governments when establishing energy policies.
Researcher Dr Sandy Tudhope explains the three year project involves the use of underwater drilling equipment to collect cores from the coral reefs. The gaps left from extracting the core samples will be filled with cement, and eventually overgrown with new coral. The samples will be analysed to try and discover whether climate changes are part of the natural spectrum of variability, or unprecedented, and possibly related to global warming.
"The central Pacific region was selected for study on the basis of recent evidence which suggests that it is a key area for influencing global climate variability. An important part of the variability which we are examining is the El Nino Southern Oscillation phenomenon."
Grant-holder Dr Tudhope and his team have recently returned from a spell of fieldwork in the central Pacific, where they chartered an 80ft yacht to work a transect of reef sites from Rarotonga, the Southern Cook Islands, at 23 degrees south, up to Jarvis Island at the equator.
The researchers are now back in Edinburgh, where they will begin geochemical analysis to generate records of past sea surface temperature and salinity. "We will use these to reconstruct the nature and patterns of climate variability over the past couple of centuries," says Dr Tudhope.
The project has received funding of £196,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council, and draws on help from other academic institutions and marine laboratories.
For further information,
please contact:
Dr Sandy Tudhope , Marine Geosciences Unit, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Tel: 0131 650 8508 or email Sandy.Tudhope@ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh, University of
Coral Reef News and Current Coral Reef Events RSSShipwrecks on coral reefs harbor unwanted species
Shipwrecks on coral reefs may increase invasion of unwanted species, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study. These unwanted species can completely overtake the reef and eliminate all the native coral, dramatically decreasing the diversity of marine organisms on the reef.
A recipe for saving the world's oceans from an extinction crisis
Jeremy Jackson, senior scientist emeritus of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, asserts in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that the following steps, if taken immediately, could reverse the demise of the oceans: Establish marine reserves, enforce fishing regulations, implement aquaculture, remove subsidies on fertilizer use, muster human ingenuity to limit fossil fuel consumption, buy time by establishing local conservation measures.
Fossil and molecular evidence reveals the history of major marine biodiversity hotspots
The journal "Science" has published in the issue of the 1st of August the results of a detailed research work about the evolution of marine diversity all through the last 50 million years.
Lionfish decimating tropical fish populations, threaten coral reefs
The invasion of predatory lionfish in the Caribbean region poses yet another major threat there to coral reef ecosystems - a new study has found that within a short period after the entry of lionfish into an area, the survival of other reef fishes is slashed by about 80 percent.
Scientists discover new reefs teeming with marine life in Brazil
Scientists announced today the discovery of reef structures they believe doubles the size of the Southern Atlantic Ocean's largest and richest reef system, the Abrolhos Bank, off the southern coast of Brazil's Bahia state. The newly discovered area is also far more abundant in marine life than the previously known Abrolhos reef system, one of the world's most unique and important reefs.
NOAA report states half of US coral reefs in 'poor' or 'fair' condition
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Dry Tortugas show positive trends: Protected area slowly rebounding
A team of 38 research divers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, NOAA Fisheries Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the National Park Service, REEF, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington recently completed a successful 20-day biennial census to measure how the protected status of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's Tortugas Ecological Reserve and Dry Tortugas National Park's Research Natural Area are helping the regional ecosystem rebound from decades of overfishing and environmental changes.
Saltwater Sleuths: NOAA Researchers Seek Clues in Unusual Places to Help Determine the Ages of Fish and Shellfish Populations
Fishery biologist Sandy Sutherland looks through the lens of the microscope at tiny sections of fish earbones, known as otoliths, each showing annual bands of growth.
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New study predicts where corals can thrive
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth have developed a new scientific model that accurately maps where coral reefs are in the most trouble and identifies regions where reefs can be protected best.
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