Ancient Coral Reef Discovered Near Australia
A team of researchers from Australian and New Zealand have discovered an ancient, massive coral reef in the Pacific Ocean, making it the southernmost reef discovered to date.
The ancient reef, which is an estimated 9,000 years old and well over 20-times larger than any existing modern reef, was discovered near Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, some 370-plus miles east of the Australian mainland, according to an August 31 press release published online at ScienceDaily.com.
The team of researchers, who were led by Colin D. Woodroffe from the University of Wollongong’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, also discovered that reefs are noticeably effected by and sensitive to climate change.
"Reefs are threatened by global warming, with many experiencing increased coral bleaching. Warmer sea surface temperatures might enable reef expansion into mid latitudes," Woodroffe and colleagues wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "This relict reef, with localized re-establishment of corals in the past three millennia, could become a substrate for reef expansion in response to warmer temperatures, anticipated later this century and beyond, if corals are able to recolonize its surface."
"The observation shows the extent to which reefs grew 9,000 years ago," notes the press release. "Today coral reefs exist mainly in shallow seawater with sea surface temperatures greater than 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit), at latitudes near the equator. The relict reef shows that corals previously existed at southern latitudes farther from the equator."
Joining Woodroffe on the study were fellow University of Wollongong scientists Michelle Linklater and Brian G. Jones; Brendan P. Brooke, Cameron Buchanan, and Richard Mleczko from Geoscience Australia; David M. Kennedy from Victoria University of Wellington; Quan Hua of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization; and Jian-xin Zhao of the University of Queensland’s Radiogenic Isotope Facility. Their study was published on August 3.
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Image Caption: NASA image of Lord Howe Island.
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