“Corals, Climate, and Sea Level Changes” with Lida Teneva (Feb 2008)

“Corals, Climate, and Sea Level Changes”
with Lida Teneva

Originally presented 9 Feb 2008

Where Is She Now? http://stanford.academia.edu/LidaTeneva

    Coral reefs are some of the most fragile, and yet most diverse environments on Earth. In a delicate balance between ocean, land, and atmosphere, coral reefs harbor a third of all marine species. As diverse and sensitive as it is, the coral reef ecosystem does not only have intrinsic natural value, as well as economic value for tourism and fishing, but also the incredible value of recording past climate conditions within the limestone skeletons of ancient corals. Precious information about past environmental changes in preserved in many pristine corals around the world, helping scientists investigate ocean and climate conditions as far back as tens of thousands years ago.

      Chemical analyses of coral skeletons provide impressive insight into fluctuations in nutrient delivery to the system and fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels as well as temperatures. Precise age and depth determination of series of ancient corals also allows for estimates of regional and global sea level changes. Detailed research on various aspects of corals and coral reefs can provide immense and crucial information about the rate and degree of climatological changes observed in the past. This, in turn, will be quite meaningful for modelling future sea level and climate change not only in the coral reef areas of the world, but the whole climate system.

        Lida Teneva is a graduate student at LDEO. Originally from Bulgaria, she graduated from Franklin & Marshall College. Here are Lamont, she has started her research into climate change with Dr. Rick Fairbanks. To obtain some of the samples, she has to travel to the Caribbean. As she explains through her web page, ‘it’s a rough job, but someone has to go there!’

 

Introduction to this Workshop

 Click for the introductory PowerPoint presentation to this topic

Click for a pdf version of the introductory presentation.

 

Cutting-Edge Research

Coral reefs are some of the most fragile, and yet most diverse environments on Earth. In a delicate balance between ocean, land, and atmosphere, coral reefs harbor a third of all marine species. As diverse and sensitive as it is, the coral reef ecosystem does not only have intrinsic natural value, as well as economic value for tourism and fishing, but also the incredible value of recording past climate conditions within the limestone skeletons of ancient corals. Precious information about past environmental changes in preserved in many pristine corals around the world, helping scientists investigate ocean and climate conditions as far back as tens of thousands years ago.

Chemical analyses of coral skeletons provide impressive insight into fluctuations in nutrient delivery to the system and fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels as well as temperatures. Precise age and depth determination of series of ancient corals also allows for estimates of regional and global sea level changes. Detailed research on various aspects of corals and coral reefs can provide immense and crucial information about the rate and degree of climatological changes observed in the past. This, in turn, will be quite meaningful for modelling future sea level and climate change not only in the coral reef areas of the world, but the whole climate system.

 

Lida Teneva is a graduate student who recently came to LDEO to study these problems with Dr. Rick Fairbanks and others. Here is a link to Dr. Fairbanks’ Coral Biochemistry and Culture experiments:http://radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/coral.htm

Lida’s presentation (ppt)

Lida’s presentation (pdf)

 

Classroom Resources

Ocean Explorer: History’s Thermometers
http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02alaska/background/edu/media/thermo9_12.pdf

Coral Reefs in Hot Water
http://www.strategies.org/docs/CoralReefs_May02.pdf

Exploring Paleoclimatology in the Classroom Using Coral Radioisotope Data
http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/datasheets/Paleoclimatology_Rarotonga.html

Ocean World: Coral reefs (Interactive Online Quiz)

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral_quiz.htm

Enchanted Learning (Note: May require subscription to access these pages):

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/coralreef/coralreef.shtml

 

NOAA Coral Health and Monitoring Program (CHAMP
Coral Literature, Education, and Outreach (CLEO)
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cleo/
Education Modules on spawning, bleaching effects of CO2
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cleo/education.shtml

 

NOAA Paleoclimatology 
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/education.html

 

Treasures in the Sea (Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation
http://www.breef.org/ForTeachers/tabid/74/Default.aspx

 

 

Other Resources for This Topic

LDEO Research:
Coral Biochemistry, Skeletal Chemistry, and Microstructure

from Culture Experiments
http://radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/coral.htm
Sea Level:
http://radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/sealevel.htm

 

Coral reefs:

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/index.html

www.uvi.edu/coral.reefer

http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coral_reef/

   http://coral.noaa.gov

   “Reefs on the Web” http://barbiemail.googlepages.com/home

   “Coral Reef Bleaching”: http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm
http://www.reeffutures.org/topics/bleach.cfm

  

The Carbon Cycle:

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/CarbonCycle.html

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/CarbonCycle/

http://www.whrc.org/carbon/index.htm

 

Ocean acidification:

http://royalsociety.org/document.asp?id=3249

http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/ccs/Technical/Ocean/

 

Sea level rise:

http://www.climate.org/topics/sealevel/index.shtml

http://sealevel.colorado.edu/

 

Corals and Climate Change:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/outreach/coral/coralintro.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/education.html

Classroom resources:

Coral reefs:

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral_quiz.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/coralreef/coralreef.shtml

 

 

Multimedia

Images from this Workshop with Lina Teneva (Images by F. Baggio)

                                 

                       

                     

 

Video Amazing Coral Reefs