Reefs on the northern and eastern exposures received the full brunt of the cyclone-induced waves, so our objective was to document the status of reef communities in those areas and compare the results to identical surveys undertaken in 2011. See also fish diversity. The first survey site was North Reef. Coral species diversity was recorded […]
Archives for January 2015
Fish diversity 10 months after Cyclone Ita
As on land, the damage to the coral reefs was very patchy; some places were stripped bare while some others have remained largely intact. At each site, we surveyed two depths (8-10m and 3-5m); recording the entire fish and coral community, including species, abundance and, for the fishes, total length. See also coral diversity. […]
Seeing the sea-level rise
Digital mapping, visualization and wave-modelling technology is helping scientists predict the effect of rising sea levels at Lizard Island and other coral reef locations. Scientists commenced work on the Australian Sea-Level Rise Project at Lizard Island in 2011. The team included Sarah Hamylton, Megan Saunders and Javier Leon-Patino. Over 4 million data points were derived from satellite, aerial and marine surveys. See J.X. Leon et […]
Paleo reefs – the last 126,000 years
Marine geologists are investigating the effects of changing sea levels and sea surface temperatures on reef development, with some surprising results. This graph shows the eustatic (global) sea level for the last 360,000 years. 1kya = 1,000 years ago. Around 126,000 years ago (Late Pleistocene period), the sea level was slightly higher than it […]