Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on coral reef . The primary Research Objective of this project is to test hypotheses about long-term changes in coral calcification in response to environmental variability using the emerging technology of computed tomography (CT) and coral cores collected from Ofu Island in American Samoa and from inshore locations throughout south Florida. In doing so, this project aims to 1) reconstruct decadal to millennial-scale changes in calcification during the Holocene to determine how longer-term environmental changes, including ocean warming and ecosystem degradation, influence coral growth and 2) develop decades- to centuries-long records of coral growth and bioerosion preserved within individual cores and to provide important historical context for modern day studies of coral calcification, reef erosion, and the impacts of these processes on reef health.