Coral Growth Rate Plummets In 30-year Comparison

By Shane Graber

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From Carnegie Institution

In a quest for historical context on the peril facing coral reefs, the team compared current measurements of the growth rate of a section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef with similar measurements taken more than 30 years ago. Their work is published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Coral reefs are havens for biodiversity and crucial for the economies of many coastal communities. But they are very sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry resulting from human activity. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution about one-third of the carbon dioxide, CO2, which has been released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and land use change has been absorbed by the oceans, where it damages coral reefs.

Coral reefs use a mineral called aragonite to make their skeletons, a process called calcification. It is a naturally occurring form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3. When carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, it forms carbonic acid, H2CO3, which makes the ocean more acidic and decreases its pH. This makes it more difficult for many marine organisms to grow their shells and skeletons, and threatens coral around the globe.

Recent studies have shown …read more

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