Corals light the way to a healthy partnership
Corals know how to attract good company. New research finds that corals emit an enticing fluorescent green light that attracts the mobile microalgae, known as Symbiodinium, that are critical to the e
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au
Presented by: Michael Holcomb, ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, School of Earth and Environment & Oceans Institute The University of Western Australia
Abstract: Calcification, as carried out by corals, is responsible for forming the structural frame work for some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. Despite the importance of this process for building and maintaining reefs, our understanding of calcification remains limited. I will present evidence which supports calcification being an active (energy requiring) process carried out by corals. Although calcification occurs at a site isolated from the external environment, its dependence on external environmental conditions varies widely study to study, and even between conditions within a given study. Using a simple box model and constraints from abiogenic aragonite growth I will attempt to explain how energy investment and tissue permeability may explain much of the range of observed responses of calcification to environmental variables, with a focus on ocean acidification.
Biography: Michael obtained a BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Idaho in 2004, where he worked on reproductive biology in fish. Michael completed his PhD in 2010 in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in oceanography working on biomineralization in corals. He went on to a postdoc at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco where he worked on the energetics of coral calcification, and has recently started a postdoc at the University of Western Australia where he is working on the boron isotope pH proxy in corals.
Presented by: Zhenlin Zhang, ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, School of Earth and Environment & Oceans Institute The University of Western Australia
Abstract: We investigate the combined effect of hydrodynamic forcing and biogeochemical processes on the distribution of nutrients, benthic nutrient fluxes and alkalinities across a shallow-water fringing coral reef system. A new benthic biogeochemical module was first developed using relationships from the coral reef literature relating convective nutrient mass transfer velocities to total bottom drag and integrated it in a coupled three-dimensional numerical ocean circulation model (ROMS) and numerical spectral wave model (SWAN). The coupled model showed high spatial variation in nutrient concentration and successfully reproduced the nutrient concentration across a section of Ningaloo Reef at Sandy Bay. The coupled physical-biogeochemical model was further extended to investigate the system-scale response to reef calcification within a section of Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay. We modelled the spatial distribution of both the residence time and the deviation in total alkalinity (TA) from offshore values of this reef-lagoon. While residence time was calculated from the hydrodynamic model alone using a conservative tracer, TA was modeled as a reactive tracer whose ‘release’ was driven by light-dependent community calcification through a relationship derived from measurements made on an adjacent reef flat. Results showed that 1) the coupled model was capable of reproducing the observed spatial variability of TA on a scale much larger than the ~100 m control volume where the calcification measurements were made; and 2) that both residence time and TA varied strongly as a function of the incident wave forcing and location within the reef lagoon system. This new modeling approach provides a framework for accurately estimating nutrient uptake and calcification rates across entire reef systems based on observed gradients in nutrient and TA within a coral reef system, thus providing a new powerful tool for coral reef research and monitoring.
Biography: Dr. Zhenlin Zhang completed her PhD degree in oceanography at the University of Western Australia in 2011. Her current research focuses on developing spatial-explicit biogeochemical models in coral reef systems and investigating how the physical and pelagic biogeochemical processes offshore influence nutrient dynamics and water chemistry within coral reef systems nearshore.
Corals know how to attract good company. New research finds that corals emit an enticing fluorescent green light that attracts the mobile microalgae, known as Symbiodinium, that are critical to the e
A study led by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University found fish become anxious and more cautious when water quality is degraded by sediment, an e
Queensland’s coastal shark numbers are continuing a 50-year decline, in sharp contradiction of suggestions of ‘exploding’ shark populations, according to an analysis of Queensland Shark Control
The future of the world’s coral reefs is uncertain, as the impact of global heating continues to escalate. However, according to a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the response of the
Who: Julian Cribb Where: JCU HY002, UQ CMS Meeting Room When: Monday 20 March 2006, 11.00am-12.00pm
The Lizard Island Doctoral Fellowships Program provides financial support for field-intensive coral reef research at Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef by outstanding PhD student
Who: Go Suzuki, Kyoto University Where: ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, James Cook University, Townsville with video link to Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 1.00pm Monday 23
Who: Lead by Meir Sussman Where: ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville with video link to Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 4.00pm, Thursday 26 April 2007
Dr. Frank Thomalla is a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) where he leads the Stockholm-based group of the “Risk, Livelihoods and Vulnerability Programme” and at the re
Dr Troy Day is a theoretical evolutionary ecologist at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada (http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~tday/index.html). His primary research interests are in the evolution of in
Who: Lead by Dr Sophie Dove Where: Video link ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville and Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 4.00pm, Thursday 10 May 2007
Who: Lead by Professor Terry Hughes Where: Video link ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville and JCU Cairns, Room B1.108 When: 12.00pm, Monday 14 May 2007
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au