A study of 7000-year-old exposed coral reef fossils reveals how human fishing has transformed Caribbean reef food webs: as ...

The turquoise water of Hōnaunau Bay in Hawaii, an area popular with snorkelers and divers, is teeming with spiny creatures ...

Fossils from 7,000-year-old Caribbean reefs show a 75% drop in sharks and a rise in prey fish numbers and size.

But the study also found more signs of trouble for coral reefs: carbonate productivity today is half what has been for thousands of years of sand apron formation in the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Coral restoration can drive rapid reef carbonate budget recovery. Article Publication Date. 8-Mar-2024. Disclaimer: ...

The reef in Hōnaunau Bay today, however, showed an average net carbonate production of only 0.5 kg per square meter, indicating that the reef is growing very slowly.

These measurements gave them a sense of the rate that the reef’s functions were returning to normal. To compare, they also measured the carbonate budgets of degraded reefs and healthy control sites.

Coral secretes calcium carbonate, creating a sort-of concrete around itself that becomes the structure for the reef. But that process can take "hundreds and thousands of years," Brosnan said.

Artificial coral reefs. The metric Lamont’s team used to measure the success of the MARS program restoration was a carbonate budget, which describes an overall growth of the whole reef structure.

And he's found the perfect place to gather this data: Curaçao, an arid Caribbean island north of Venezuela. "Curaçao is home to some of the most pristine coral reefs in the Caribbean and in the world, ...