Hundreds of millions of tons of mineral dust are transported thousands of miles through the atmosphere from the Sahara and Sahel of Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas every year.
This video discusses whether African dust is playing a role in coral reef declines throughout the Caribbean region, and if African dust has a negative effect on human health. If so, what processes are involved?
Stay tuned for a related post about iron fertilisation experiments to trigger phytoplankton blooms in the North Pacific, where sands of the Sahara are not present.
Coral reefs are usually associated with warm, tropical waters and exotic fish, but not with the cold, deep and dark waters of the North Atlantic where corals were regarded as oddities on the seafloor. It is now known that cold-water coral species also produce reefs, which may rival their tropical cousins in terms of the species richness of associated marine life. Increasing commercial operations in deep waters, and the use of advanced offshore technology have slowly revealed the true extent of Europe’s hidden coral ecosystems. The discovery of extraordinary, 10 km-long chains of the reef-building coralsLophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata in several hundred metres of water on the Norwegian and Irish Shelves have deeply challenged conventional views. The same coral assemblages are also found associated with large seabed structures in the Porcupine Seabight (offshore Ireland), where they are so abundant that their skeletal remains have, over the millennia, contributed to carbonate mound structures up to 300m high in 700-1200m water depths. The potential of cold-water corals to contribute to the formation of these large seafloor features and their high biological diversity have attracted considerable public attention through reports in numerous national TV and newspaper features.
Coinciding with World Oceans Day, Prof. David van Rooij, Renard Centre of Marine Geology (RCMG), Dept. of Geology and Soil Science, Ghent University, Belgium gave a seminar today in Galway, entitled “Go with the flow: Impact of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) on NE Atlantic sedimentary processes and ecosystems.” The talk particularly focused on the colonisation of Atlantic margins by cold-water corals since the end of the last Ice Age and how variation in the MOW explains the current distribution pattern of carbonate mounds found, for example, in Irish waters. See also the Lophelia.org website for some more background on cold water corals and carbonate mound provinces.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks go to Prof. David van Rooij for permission for inclusion of his seminar in this blog.
Image Credit
1) Map of some carbonate mound provinces in North East Atlantic, University of Liverpool.
The Changing Oceans Cruise is a 35 day scientific expedition, departing from Glasgow on the 17th May 2012. Led by Professor Murray Roberts, the mission is to examine the potential impact of changes in the temperature and chemistry of the oceans on cold-water coral reefs and the associated reef-creatures. Using a remotely-operated vehicle ROV, we will survey and sample the deep water coral communities. We will also use a vast array of scientific equipment to study the biology, chemistry and physics of cold-water coral sites, as well as conducting onboard experiments.
Check out this amazing cruise blog at Changing Oceans. Especially interesting are the Equipment and Sea Creatures Sections. Sorry about the absence from blogging in the last month or so; have been busy with work. Still, have got a few potential posts lined up for next month and am considering becoming a filmmaker…
Have just discovered this amazing series of videos about the Pembrokeshire coast, Wales. Sit back and enjoy the scenary of the coastal walk. [gigya src=”http://www.youtube.com/p/22494D0A7B4A2CE8?hl=en_US&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”640″ height=”360″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” ]
Oceanographer Paul Snelgrove shares the results of a ten-year project with one goal: to take a census of all the life in the oceans. He shares amazing photos of some of the surprising finds of the Census of Marine Life.
New videography techniques have opened up the oceans’ microscopic ecosystem, revealing it to be both mesmerizingly beautiful and astoundingly complex. Marine biologist Tierney Thys teamed with Christian Sardet (CNRS/Tara Oceans), Noé Sardet and Sharif Mirshak to use footage from the Plankton Chronicles project to create a film designed to ignite wonder and curiosity about this hidden world that underpins our own food chain.
Stay tuned as Dr. Tierney Thys is going to be giving a talk at the Ryan Institute, Galway, this week. See also the website Plankton Chronicles for amazing videos of plankton.
