Pollution slows coral reef growth
7 April 2013, by Harriet Jarlett
Fine particles produced by burning fossil fuels are slowing coral reef growth, say scientists.
The new research, which is published today in Nature Geoscience,
Pollution slows coral reef growth
7 April 2013, by Harriet Jarlett
Fine particles produced by burning fossil fuels are slowing coral reef growth, say scientists.
The new research, which is published today in Nature Geoscience, shows for the first time that there is a clear link between the speed at which corals grow, and pollution caused by human activity.
The international team found that when these fine particles – known as aerosols – are released into the atmosphere by either volcanic eruptions or burning coal, they reflect incoming sunlight and shade the Earth. This process is known as 'global dimming'. It prevents necessary sunlight from reaching the coral and cools the surrounding waters. Together these factors slow down coral growth.
'Coral grows by producing calcium carbonate skeletons-contributing to a process called reef accretion,' explains Lester Kwiatkowski, a PhD student from Exeter University who led the research. 'Since the reef structure is continually being broken down by storms and other factors there's an important balance between secreting calcium carbonate and losing it.'
But lower sea-surface temperatures and a lack of sunlight for photosynthesis could mean that the coral can't produce enough calcium carbonate to maintain this balance. 'If growth rates are significantly slowed then reefs can shift to a state of net erosion,' Kwiatkowski says. 'If this continued the reefs would slowly disappear over time.'
Their analysis was based on a combination of records from coral skeletons, observations from ships, climate model simulations and statistical modelling. It shows that coral growth rates in the Caribbean were affected by volcanic aerosol emissions in the early 20th century, but that as time passed human aerosol emissions began to have a greater impact.
The authors chose to look at the Caribbean to follow up on work published in Nature last year, which showed sea-surfacetemperatures in the Nor