A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published
Analysis of growth bands in massive Porites colonies, which record annual increments like tree rings and can be read back over centuries, reported a decline of about fourteen per cent in calcification since 1990 — a change described by the authors as unprecedented in the preceding four centuries of the record. The finding was significant because it measured a slowdown in reef building on colonies that had not bleached and had not died, separating the chemistry problem from the heat problem.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Coral calcification · natural phenomenon · not located
- Great Barrier Reef · geographic_feature · Australia · not located
- Ocean acidification · natural phenomenon · Global ocean · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Declining Coral Calcification on the Great Barrier Reef
Calcification in massive Porites on the Great Barrier Reef declined by about fourteen per cent from 1990, a change the authors described as without precedent in the preceding four centuries of the skeletal record. V55 verification basis: not consulted; the figure is stated from the producing model's knowledge. This result has been the subject of subsequent methodological debate that could not be reviewed here.
Science (AAAS), De'ath, Lough and Fabricius · 2009 · Partly verified
De'ath, G., Lough, J.M. and Fabricius, K.E. (2009), Science vol. 323 — skeletal growth-band analysis of massive Porites colonies.
Recorded on Coral calcification
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List
- Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys
- A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published
- Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2017
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2016-03 to 2016-04
- Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved · 2012
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys · 1985
- Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef · 1984
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List · 1981