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Underwater springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - 9 hours 50 min ago
Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater. The study is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Predicting the future of coral reefs in a changing world
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Thu, 06/06/2013 - 13:06
Scientists have described for the first time the biological process of how corals create their skeletons, which form massive and ecologically vital coral reefs in the world's oceans. They identified specific proteins secreted by corals that precipitate carbonate to form the corals' characteristic skeleton.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Human deforestation outweighs climate change for coral reefs
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Wed, 06/05/2013 - 06:17
Better land use is the key to preventing further damage to the world's coral reefs, according to new research. The study has important implications for Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The study authors write that preventing soil erosion and sediment pollution arising from human activities such as deforestation are crucial to reef survival.
Categories: Coral Feeds
The jewels of the ocean: Two new species and a new genus of octocorals from the Pacific
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Mon, 06/03/2013 - 12:55
Two new beautiful species of octocorals and a new genus have been described from the well explored west coast of North America. Despite the 3,400 known species nowadays, these colorful marine jewels continue to surprise with new discoveries which calls for a detailed exploration of the remarkable biodiversity of octocorals.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Catastrophic climatic events leave corals facing a decade-long fight for recovery
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Sat, 06/01/2013 - 12:39
Coral reefs can take more than a decade to recover from catastrophic climatic events, with some species taking up to 13 years to recolonise their original habitats, scientists have discovered.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Net Loss: How We Continually Forget What the Oceans Really Used to Be Like [Excerpt]
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Fri, 05/24/2013 - 12:00
From The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover's Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World , by Andy Sharpless and Suzannah Evans. Rodale Books. Copyright © 2013, by Oceana.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Abundance and distribution of Hawaiian coral species predicted by model
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 05/21/2013 - 09:57
Researchers have developed species distribution models of the six dominant Hawaiian coral species around the main Hawaiian Islands, including two species currently under consideration as threatened or endangered.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Very Fine Art: 6 Stunningly Beautiful Nanoscale Sculptures [Slide Show]
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Sun, 05/19/2013 - 10:00
Artists and material scientists alike bend, melt and mold materials into useful and aesthetically pleasing forms. But nothing human hands have made can match the intricacy of convoluted corals or the delicate and unique geometry of a snowflake. In a study published yesterday in Science researchers exploited nature’s sculpting methods to create visually stunning 3-D structures that may change the way nano- and micro-materials are made.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
First ever underwater university lectures
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Fri, 05/17/2013 - 07:57
Students at the University of Essex have taken their lectures to a whole new level -- 18 metres under the sea in remote Indonesia to be precise.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Coral reef fishes prove invaluable in the study of evolutionary ecology
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Thu, 05/16/2013 - 11:36
Coral reef fish species have proven invaluable for experimental testing of key concepts in social evolution and already have yielded insights about the ultimate reasons for female reproductive suppression, group living, and bidirectional sex change.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Tiny Plants That Once Ruled the Seas (preview)
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Wed, 05/15/2013 - 07:00
If you could hop onboard a time machine and visit the earth as it was 500 million years ago, during the Paleozoic era, you'd be forgiven for thinking you had traveled not to another time period but to another planet altogether. In essence, you would have. The continents mostly sat in the Southern Hemisphere, the oceans had vastly different configurations and currents, the Alps and the Sahara had yet to form. Land plants had not even evolved. Perhaps the most dramatic difference, however, would lie in the animals that inhabited this primeval earth. Back then, most of the world's multicellular creatures lived in the sea. Clamlike creatures called brachiopods and trilobites--those extinct cousins of today's lobsters and insects, with their hard exoskeletons, long antennae and compound eyes--reigned supreme.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Cooling ocean temperature could buy more time for coral reefs
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 05/14/2013 - 10:28
Limiting the amount of warming experienced by the world's oceans in the future could buy some time for tropical coral reefs, say researchers.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Microbes capture, store, and release nitrogen to feed reef-building coral
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 05/14/2013 - 07:54
Microscopic algae that live within reef-forming corals scoop up available nitrogen, store the excess in crystal form, and slowly feed it to the coral as needed, according to a study published in mBio.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Corals turn to algae for stored food when times get tough
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 05/14/2013 - 07:54
Researchers present new evidence for the crucial role of algae in the survival of their coral hosts. Ultra-high resolution images reveal that the algae temporarily store nutrients as crystals, building up reserves for when supplies run low.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Why Rituals Work
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Tue, 05/14/2013 - 06:30
Think about the last time you were about to interview for a job, speak in front of an audience, or go on a first date. To quell your nerves, chances are you spent time preparing – reading up on the company, reviewing your slides, practicing your charming patter. People facing situations that induce anxiety typically take comfort in engaging in preparatory activities, inducing a feeling of being back in control and reducing uncertainty.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Coral reefs suffering, but collapse not inevitable
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Thu, 05/09/2013 - 11:34
Coral reefs are in decline, but their collapse can still be avoided with local and global action. That's according to findings based on an analysis that combines the latest science on reef dynamics with the latest climate models.
Categories: Coral Feeds
How Kitty Is Killing the Dolphins (preview)
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Mon, 04/29/2013 - 06:00
The detective story had begun, as they always do, with a ringing phone. A biologist was on the line. He had found a corpse. A few days later he called a second time, having found another. Soon the calls were coming “again and again,” Melissa A. Miller recalls. “At the h ghest point, we were getting four a day.” As the bodies piled up, so did the questions.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Insights into deadly coral bleaching could help preserve reefs: Surprising result from study of 1893 World's Fair corals
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 04/23/2013 - 12:51
Coral reefs are stressed because of climate change. Researchers have discovered corals themselves play a role in their susceptibility to deadly coral bleaching due to the light-scattering properties of their skeletons. No one else has shown this before. Using optical technology designed for early cancer detection, the researchers discovered that reef-building corals scatter light in different ways to the symbiotic algae that feed the corals.
Categories: Coral Feeds
On the Rebound, New England Oysters Face Climate Change Threat
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Wed, 04/17/2013 - 11:00
CHARLESTOWN, R.I. – Rain and sleet smack the surface of Ninigret Pond as oyster farmer Jules Opton-Himmel fumbles with a stalled outboard motor. Not much is going his way this morning.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Recommended: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-Century Bestiary
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Sun, 04/14/2013 - 12:00
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds
