Volcanoes Responsible For Coral Reef Diversity
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study claims earthquakes and volcanoes are responsible for the diverse nature of the ocean’s coral reefs. With this information, scientists are now becoming even more worried...
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Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In a study that could have implications for ocean conservation and marine-based economic activity, researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have found new details surrounding the symbiotic relationship between corals and algae. "Coral reefs are the jungles of our oceans - hotspots of biodiversity that easily outcompete all other marine ecosystems," said the EPFL’s Christophe Kopp,...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online University of Bristol researchers writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters say limiting global warming would be key to buying the coral reefs some more time. The researchers found restricting greenhouse warming to just 50-100 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide, or approximately half the increase since the Industrial Revolution, would avoid large-scale reductions in reef habitat occurring in the future. "If sea...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In the South Pacific, three types of coral reef island formations have fascinated geologists for ages. The coral of Tahiti forms a “fringing” reef, with a shelf growing close to the island’s shore. In Bora Bora, the “barrier” reefs are separated from the main island by a calm lagoon. Manuae represents the last type, an “atoll,” which appears as a ring of coral enclosing a lagoon with no island at the center. The...
Coral ecosystems support around 500,000,000 people, but are severely threatened; the Coralbots team aim to revolutionize how such threats are tackled. Their Kickstarter campaign (closing May 26th) seeks individuals and corporations who wish to make a lasting positive impact on the marine environment, offering ways for individuals, schools and corporations to be directly involved. EDINBURGH, Scotland, May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The ocean covers over 70% of the planet, but is...
Coral reefs support around half a billion people, but are severely threatened; the Coralbots team plan to revolutionize how such threats are tackled, by using teams of autonomous underwater robots. The Coralbots Kickstarter campaign (closing May 26th) is reaching out to individuals and corporations who wish to make a lasting positive impact on the marine environment, and now offering ways for backers to be directly involved in the project. Edinburgh, UK (PRWEB) May 04, 2013 The ocean is...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online When corals become stressed, they expel their symbiotic algae companions in a process known as “bleaching.” Corals can survive the bleaching, but it leaves them highly vulnerable and often results in die-off. As a changing climate threatens to bleach the corals of the world’s oceans on a massive scale, a team of researchers from Northwestern University has found that some corals facilitate bleaching through the light-scattering...
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem [ Watch the Video Pulsating Coral In The Gulf Of Eilat ] Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have discovered why Heteroxenia corals pulsate. Their work, which resolves an old scientific mystery, appears in the current issue of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US). One of the most fascinating and spectacular sights in the coral reef of Eilat is the perpetual...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Fine particles in the air resulting from burning coal or volcanic eruptions can negatively affect coral growth, a team of climate scientists and coral ecologists from the UK, Australia and Panama has discovered. The study, which appears in this week’s edition of the journal Nature Geoscience, found that coral reefs respond to changes in the concentration of atmospheric pollution. Those particulates can shade the corals from...
Cell Press Communities that act locally to limit their fish catches will reap the rewards of their action, as will their neighbors. That's the conclusion of a study reported on March 28 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology of the highly sought-after fish known as squaretail coral grouper living in five community-owned reef systems in Papua New Guinea. "We found that many larvae that were produced by the managed adults return to that same fish population, which means that the same...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Previous studies have shown that warming oceans and ocean acidification threaten to destroy the ocean’s coral reefs. Now, a new study from Australian researchers published in the journal Global Change Biology suggests that yet another threat could decimate these delicate ecosystems. “Our research shows that when seawater is both acidic and warm – which is predicted to happen under future climate scenarios – coral reefs could be...
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Coral reefs are submerged structures consisting of calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of small animals found in marine waters that enclose few nutrients. The majority of coral reefs are constructed from stony corals, which then consist of polyps that come together in groups. The polyps are like small sea anemones, to which they are very closely related. Unlike the sea anemones, coral polyps secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which provide support and protections...
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country involving the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and a number of smaller islands. It’s the world’s sixth-largest country regarding to total area. Some of the neighboring countries include East Timor, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. For at least 40,000 years before European...
The bat ray is part of the eagle ray family living on the sandy or muddy sea bottom, a kelp bed, and rocky shoreline, in an estuary, bay, or slough off the Pacific coast and around the Galapagos Islands. It can be found in a group or swimming alone and will sometime bury itself in the sand. The average length of the bat ray is 3.28 feet, but some have been recorded of reaching 5.9 feet. Wingspan of this species can reach 6 feet and weigh up to 200 lbs., but typically 20 - 30 lbs. is the...
