Scripps Researchers Explore Wonders of Coral

scientists conduct research in kingmanOff remote Pacific atolls, San Diego researchers studying coral ecosystems found an underwater wonderland more vibrant than anything they’d ever seen. Vast coral cities of towers and caverns were teeming with sharks and other sea life.

“They can create a labyrinth, a maze or a church,” said Jennifer Smith, a professor at the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a lead researcher on the studies. “It can be really spectacular.”

Coral reefs are made up of the skeletons of coral polyps, which accumulate over millennia to form branching structures that host fish, mollusks and other marine life.

There in the Line Islands, a far-flung archipelago 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, coral grew “in big mounds the size of Volkswagen buses,” said Scripps researcher Nicole Price. “Then there’s fish swimming in and around like a big jungle gym: turtles, manta rays, sharks and dolphins following your boat. It truly is kind of idyllic.”

The research aimed to measure the differences between reefs on inhabited versus uninhabited islands. Around the world, reefs have declined because of overfishing, pollution and coral bleaching, through which warming waters prompt corals to expel microorganisms that help them survive.

Amid that gloomy news, the Scripps findings set a new benchmark for what a healthy reef should look like, and offer hope for restoration of degraded reefs.

green sea turtle“We view it as an opportunity to go back in time,” Smith said. “These uninhabited islands represent a window into the past, to see what coral reefs looked like hundreds of years ago. There’s no fishing, there’s no development, there’s no runoff.”

It also represents good news to people who rely on reefs for food, income and breakwaters, demonstrating that robust reefs are more productive.

“A healthier reef, where you want to dive, is also the one that gives the villagers more food, and protects their coastline,” said Stuart Sandin, a professor of marine ecology at Scripps.

The Scripps team began looking at the Line Islands in 2005, after charting out areas isolated from human impact, and outside normal trade and fishing routes.

Some host just a few thousand people; others have no permanent residents. So scientists could study the variation between the inhabited and uninhabited islands, and examine how a relatively pristine reef functions.

“To date, most of our research has looked at degraded reefs,” Sandin said. “What do sick reefs look like and what is the degree of their illness? But we never had a healthy reef to study.”

In other reefs around the world, coral formations typically cover about 20 percent of ocean bottom, Smith said. By contrast, the pristine reefs they studied covered 70 to 90 percent of the sea floor, “which is just unheard of anywhere else on the planet,” she said.

Massive round-topped corals called porites grew many meters across and just as tall, stretching across the ocean like a forest of giant mushrooms. Giant clams wedged between coral fronds, while striped surgeonfish swam in impenetrable schools.

Off remote Pacific atolls, San Diego researchers studying coral ecosystems found an underwater wonderland more vibrant than anything they’d ever seen. Vast coral cities of towers and caverns were teeming with sharks and other sea life.

kingman backreefcommunity“They can create a labyrinth, a maze or a church,” said Jennifer Smith, a professor at the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a lead researcher on the studies. “It can be really spectacular.”

Coral reefs are made up of the skeletons of coral polyps, which accumulate over millennia to form branching structures that host fish, mollusks and other marine life.

There in the Line Islands, a far-flung archipelago 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, coral grew “in big mounds the size of Volkswagen buses,” said Scripps researcher Nicole Price. “Then there’s fish swimming in and around like a big jungle gym: turtles, manta rays, sharks and dolphins following your boat. It truly is kind of idyllic.”

The research aimed to measure the differences between reefs on inhabited versus uninhabited islands. Around the world, reefs have declined because of overfishing, pollution and coral bleaching, through which warming waters prompt corals to expel microorganisms that help them survive.

Amid that gloomy news, the Scripps findings set a new benchmark for what a healthy reef should look like, and offer hope for restoration of degraded reefs.

A thicket of the branching Acropora“We view it as an opportunity to go back in time,” Smith said. “These uninhabited islands represent a window into the past, to see what coral reefs looked like hundreds of years ago. There’s no fishing, there’s no development, there’s no runoff.”

It also represents good news to people who rely on reefs for food, income and breakwaters, demonstrating that robust reefs are more productive.

“A healthier reef, where you want to dive, is also the one that gives the villagers more food, and protects their coastline,” said Stuart Sandin, a professor of marine ecology at Scripps.

The Scripps team began looking at the Line Islands in 2005, after charting out areas isolated from human impact, and outside normal trade and fishing routes.

Some host just a few thousand people; others have no permanent residents. So scientists could study the variation between the inhabited and uninhabited islands, and examine how a relatively pristine reef functions.

“To date, most of our research has looked at degraded reefs,” Sandin said. “What do sick reefs look like and what is the degree of their illness? But we never had a healthy reef to study.”

mini reefIn other reefs around the world, coral formations typically cover about 20 percent of ocean bottom, Smith said. By contrast, the pristine reefs they studied covered 70 to 90 percent of the sea floor, “which is just unheard of anywhere else on the planet,” she said.

Massive round-topped corals called porites grew many meters across and just as tall, stretching across the ocean like a forest of giant mushrooms. Giant clams wedged between coral fronds, while striped surgeonfish swam in impenetrable schools.

 

Check out the original article here on the U-T website!

*Photos are courtesy of  Jennifer E. Smith & Jill Harris