Photo Credits:
Mark Eakin
NOAA Paleoclimatology Program
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of a full resolution TIF image
| Paleo Slide Set: Coral Paleoclimatology:Natural Record of Climate change for High School Student |
| Erosion of (Pavona), Saboga Island, Panama | |
| The 1982-83
El Niño killed many corals in the eastern Pacific. All or part of
the coral colonies bleached and therefore died. In the year following the
El Niño, conditions were favorable for the growth and survival of
young sea urchins. Unfortunately, sea urchins scrape away the coral skeleton
of a reef as they graze on algae. Due to the increase in the sea urchin
population, the death of the corals was followed by increased erosion, destroying
the reef structure. These two events occurring in succession destroyed corals
that might be used to obtain a record of past climate. This slide from Saboga
Island, Panama shows the erosion by sea urchins of a coral partially killed
in the 1982-83 El Niño. Fifteen years after these events, many reefs
in the eastern Pacific are still eroding faster than corals are depositing
skeletons.
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