Coral Ecology

A Field of Flowers

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This morning we headed to Shib Ammar, a submerged patch reef at the outer edge of the Farasan Banks, some 40 miles offshore. Twenty knot winds from the northwest, and a 1.5 meter swell made for a wet and bumpy …

Recent Reef Disturbance

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Our team continued reef assessments along middle shelf locations to better characterize the spatial extent of the disturbance. We first examined two locations along the unnamed submerged reef platform described yesterday, first at the northwestern tip, about 6.4 km west …

Rebirth of a Coral Reef

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For our third dive of the day we surveyed a submerged mid shelf reef, adjacent and west of a deep water channel that bisects the Farasan Banks. As I descended to the bottom, something seemed amiss. Unlike the crystal clear, …

Our First Dives (Abu Latt)

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Saturday, April 4. Our research team boarded the Golden Shadow on Saturday morning, departing from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia around mid day for a 7 hour (120 mile) journey to the northern end of the Farasan Banks. We reached our first …

Photosynthetic Symbioses in Animals

Photosynthetic Symbioses in Animals Marine animals acquire photosynthetically-fixed carbon by forming symbioses with algae and cyanobacteria.  These associations are widespread in the phyla Porifera (sponges) and Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones etc.) but otherwise uncommon or absent from animal phyla. It is suggested that one …

Field Manual for Investigating Coral Disease Outbreaks

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Field Manual for Investigating Coral Disease Outbreaks. Coral reefs throughout their circumtropical range are declining at an accelerating rate. Recent predictions indicate that 20% of the world’s reefs have been degraded, another 24% are under imminent risk of collapse, and …

Proceedings of the International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop

Proceedings of the International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop. The International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop was conceived to identify possible options for reducing the use of cyanide in the capture of coral reef fi shes for the marine aquarium trade and …

Indonesia Tsunami Impacts in Aceh Provence and North Sumatra

Indonesia Tsunami Impacts: Aceh Provence and North Sumatra The huge earthquake and resulting tsunami which occurred on December 26, 2004 off the west coast of Sumatra resulted in regionally variable patterns of impact in and around the Indian Ocean basin. The coast …