Many coral reefs will be unable to grow fast enough to keep up with predicted rising sea levels, leaving tropical coastlines and low-lying islands exposed to increasing erosion and flooding risk, new research suggests.
Scientists studying coral reefs in volcanically acidified water of the southwestern Pacific Ocean measured a net loss of coral reef skeletons due to increased bio-erosion, according to new research by NOAA, the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) and Australian scientists.
A new NOAA-led study published online today in PLOS ONE demonstrates that in naturally highly acidified waters, coral skeletons face increased erosion or eating away of reef structure by microscopic organisms, called bioerosion.
While research shows that nearly all coral reef locations in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico will experience bleaching by mid-century, a new study showing in detail when and where bleaching will occur shows great variety in the timing and location of these harmful effects.
The new research published today in Global Change Biology by NOAA scientists and colleagues provides the first fine-scale projections of coral bleaching, an important planning tool for managers.
Ian Enochs, a scientist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami, traveled in May to the Island of Maug in the Pacific Ocean as part of a NOAA expedition aboard NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai to study coral reef ecosystems. We caught up with Enochs to learn about his research on underwater vents that seep carbon dioxide into the Pacific.
A team of federal and university scientists on a 10-day expedition in the Gulf of Mexico has discovered Lophelia coral growing deeper than previously seen anywhere in the Gulf.