Research on reef corals and coral reefs
Analysis of fossil corals such as this Porites from the Holocene of the Dominican Republic provides useful insight into how coral reefs respond to long-term environmental change.
Coral reefs are among the most diverse and productive ecosystems on earth. They are threatened worldwide by the activities of humans. For reef ecologists, these changes are unprecedented, but there is abundant evidence for rapid ecological change on reef systems in the past from the fossil record.
Past examples of rapid ecological change can be studied from many time intervals and regions. Together they form a set of replicated ‘natural experiments’ in which ancient ecosystems responded to various types of environmental change.
Research aims:
The Museum's reef coral research program aims to study these past experiments to:
- understand the biological consequences of past changes
- help predict how modern reef systems might respond to ongoing and future global environmental change
Current projects include:
- Origins of southeast Asian marine biodiversity Find out more on the Throughflow websiteHunting fossils in Indonesia blog
- Biodiversity informatics of scleractinian corals Find out more on the Corallosphere website
Collaborator:
- Peter Tomiak (University of Bristol)
-
The Oligocene-Miocene transition on Caribbean coral reefs
Researchers in the Earth Sciences Department have analysed large collections of fossil corals from the Caribbean Basin to clarify the periods during which local coral reef ecosystems underwent rapid development. Learn more about this project and its findings.
-
Historical records of human impacts on coral reefs
Learn about work which aims to provide long-term data that will make it possible to distinguish the natural variability of corals from changes caused by human activities.
Fossil reef coral researchers
- Dr Ken Johnson
- Naomi Griffiths
- Nadia Santodomingo
- Emanuela Di Martino
Project collaborators
- Peter Tomiak
University of Bristol