Sentences with phrase «on elkhorn»

In 1996, researchers discovered irregularly shaped white lesions on elkhorn corals off Key West, Florida, that were killing the thin layer of living tissue that sheaths the limestone skeleton of coral colonies.

Not exact matches

Lead author and TED Senior Fellow Kristen Marhaver from the CARMABI Foundation on the Caribbean island of Curaçao said: «Strangely enough, pillar corals happen to spawn just half an hour before another threatened coral that is far better studied — the elkhorn corals.

So the reason why for so many years we've never witnessed spawning pillar corals is that, while they were spawning, virtually all coral spawning researchers and photographers in the Caribbean were on their boats doing final preparations on their dive gear for elkhorn coral spawning.

At Tres Cocos, on the same tour, rich orange elkhorn corals vibrate with coral polyps building their colonies.

With a gentle northern current all groups could fully enjoy what the site has to offer, especially the amazing concentration of smaller reef fish of all sorts of colors hovering on top of staghorn, elkhorn and other species of coral.

On the sightseeing and snorkeling tour you will enjoy beautiful sights of spectacular corals, such as elkhorn coral, sheet coral, grooved brain coral, finger corals and many more.

The film will also describe a coral propagation effort pursued by the Secore Foundation, Carmabi Foundation and Curaçao Sea Aquarium — in particular the work of Valérie F. Chamberland, a biologist who has spent nearly five years cultivating extremely endangered elkhorn coral in tanks and cementing them on boulders just offshore.

Many studies have demonstrated the risks that ocean acidification pose to marine organisms, such as coral dissolving in more acidic water.6 However, new findings suggest that the August and September time period could be particularly challenging for the earliest life stage of elkhorn coral — an important reef - forming coral of the Caribbean — if we continue on a path of high carbon dioxide emissions.5 Ordinarily each August or September elkhorn corals flood the water with eggs and sperm (gametes) for sexual reproduction.2

In 2005, during the hottest average decade on record, 8 low - wind conditions known as «the doldrums» combined with very high ocean temperatures to cause massive coral bleaching in the Virgin Islands.9 This was followed by a particularly severe outbreak of at least five coral diseases in the Virgin Islands, resulting in a decline in coral cover of about 60 percent.9 There is some indication that higher ocean temperatures — between 86 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit (30 to 35 degrees Celsius)-- promote optimal growth of several coral pathogens.9 Other research showed that elkhorn coral post-bleaching had larger disease lesions than unbleached specimens, suggesting that bleaching may increase the corals» susceptibility to disease.9, 10

Specimens of elkhorn coral living in water with excess carbon dioxide have been studied for fertilization rates, ability of larvae to settle on reef substrate (where they produce new corals), and subsequent growth and survival.3 Three levels of carbon dioxide were tested, corresponding to concentrations today, at mid-century, and at the end of the century on a high - emissions path.3, 5 At the mid-century concentration, the ability of fertilization to occur and for larvae to settle successfully on the reef was significantly reduced: around 52 percent, and the decline intensified to about 73 percent at the late - century concentration.3 The corals» ability to survive over the long run declined as well, by an average of 39 percent and 50 percent respectively.3, 4

Once the dominant reef builder of the Caribbean Sea, elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) can be found as far north as Florida and as far south as Venezuela.2 It typically lives on the side of the reef facing the open ocean, thereby taking the brunt of waves kicked up during storms and protecting communities on the nearby shoreline.