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Declining Coral Calcification on the Great Barrier Reef |
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Declining Coral Calcification on the Great Barrier Reef
Science Vol. 323, No. 5910, pp. 116-119, 2 January 2009. doi: 10.1126/science.1165283 Glenn De'ath, Janice M. Lough, Katharina E. Fabricius Australian Institute of Marine Science Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia Great Barrier Reef satellite image, NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team |
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ABSTRACT: Reef-building corals are under increasing physiological stress from a changing climate and ocean absorption of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. We investigated 328 colonies of massive Porites corals from 69 reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia. Their skeletal records show that throughout the GBR, calcification has declined by 14.2% since 1990, predominantly because extension (linear growth) has declined by 13.3%. The data suggest that such a severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at least the past 400 years. Calcification increases linearly with increasing large-scale sea surface temperature but responds nonlinearly to annual temperature anomalies. The causes of the decline remain unknown; however, this study suggests that increasing temperature stress and a declining saturation state of seawater aragonite may be diminishing the ability of GBR corals to deposit calcium carbonate. |
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Download data from the WDC Paleo archive: Great Barrier Reef data download page |
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To read or view the full study, please visit the Science website. It was published in Science, Vol. 323, No. 5910, pp. 116-119, 2 January 2009. doi: 10.1126/science.1165283 |
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http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/death2009/death2009.html Downloaded Sunday, 15-Feb-2009 17:16:22 EST Last Updated Tuesday, 13-Jan-2009 18:12:30 EST by paleo@noaa.gov Please see the Paleoclimatology Contact Page or the NCDC Contact Page if you have questions or comments. |