[Coral-List] large reef system off the mouth of the Amazon river
Douglas Fenner
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
Sat Apr 23 21:51:46 EDT 2016
Massive coral reef discovered in the Amazon River
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/23/world/amazon-river-coral-reef-irpt/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Scientists astonished by huge coral reef found in the Amazon
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scientists-astonished-by-huge-coral-reef-found-amazon-1556420?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=%2Frss%2Fyahoous%2Fnews
Reef larger than Delaware found at the mouth of the Amazon river
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/23/475414805/reef-larger-than-delaware-found-at-the-mouth-of-the-amazon-river
All 3 above are open-access. The reefs are on the continental shelf, in
the area where the Amazon empties into the Atlantic. They are NOT IN the
river. There are areas that have carbonate buildups, some extend upward as
far as 30 m from the bottom. The carbonate sampled from the surface of the
bottom was mostly built by organisms other than coral. 12 species of coral
were found at low densities and cover. Sponges and rhodoliths are the most
common components of the biological community and the authors referred to
these as marginal reef systems. None of the popular stories above point
out that since fresh water floats and these reefs are on the bottom, so the
reefs are actually in saltwater. They do get a lot of sediment and have
low light levels due to sediment, it appears. If you look at the map, it
is indeed a system of many reefs, not a single reef as some of the
headlines seem to suggest (just as the "Great Barrier Reef" is a system of
a couple thousand or so individual reefs, not a single reef).
The original article is:
An extensive reef system at the Amazon River mouth.
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501252
open access
Cheers, Doug
--
Douglas Fenner
Contractor for NOAA NMFS, and consultant
"have regulator, will travel"
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799 USA
phone 1 684 622-7084
Join the International Society for Reef Studies. Membership includes a
subscription to the journal Coral Reefs, and there are discounts for pdf
subscriptions and developing countries. Check it out! www.fit.edu/isrs/
"Belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."- Jim Beever.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts."-
Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Carbon tax: a cheap, proven fix to the world's biggest problem. (revenue
neutral)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/19/opinions/sutter-carbon-tax-washington-british-columbia/index.html
Earth's hot streak continues for a record 11 months.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/earths-hot-streak-continues-record-152700358.html
Solar can power more than 100 times America's current electricity needs, a
new report finds
http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/news-and-blogs/solar-can-power-more-than-100-times-americas-current-electricity-needs-new-report-finds
website: http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon>
Virus-free.
www.avast.com
<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=link>
<#DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
More information about the Coral-List
mailing list