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Caribbean Salinity Experiment (CASE): Investigations on Coral Skeletal Characteristics
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ISSUE:
The Caribbean Salinity Experiment (CASE) is intended to reconstruct long-term historical salinity and temperature profiles from
coral skeletons along with records of coral extension, density, and calcification. The CASE collection, along with current
holdings, spans a 15o latitudinal range of the Caribbean. This range is equivalent to the length of the Great Barrier Reef and
is an unprecedented survey of the Caribbean. This information will enable testing of various coral growth models and allow
historical tracking of water circulation and inputs from the subtropical Atlantic Gyre, cross-equatorial thermohaline
transport, and the temporal/spatial extent of the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) in the Caribbean.
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Use of a hydraulic drill to core a Montastraea faveolata colony. One of 38 cores collected as part of the CASE
cruise.
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PROJECT AND FINDINGS:
Researchers from Nova Southeastern University, the University of Miami, and the University of South Florida participated in a
52-day cruise to collect coral cores from the Windward and Leeward Islands in the Caribbean: St. Thomas, St. Croix, Barbuda,
Antigua, St. Marten, St. Kitts, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent/Grenadines. This
collection effort was a collaboration between the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), Dr. Richard E. Dodge; the National
Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE) and the Stable Isotope Laboratory at RSMAS (SIL), Dr. Peter K. Swart; and the
Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO)/USF, Dr. Terry Quinn.
NCRI researchers have sectioned and X-radiographed the coral cores to reveal the quality and length of the annual density-band
record from which appropriate cores will be chosen for isotopic and elemental analysis. Relative optical densitometry analysis
of selected cores will provide long-term records of coral growth consisting of extension, density, and calcification.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT:
Management of coral reefs under changing climatic conditions requires an understanding of known responses of corals to these
changes. Historical coral growth and proxy records provide one means of identifying the in situ response of corals to past
environmental change. By expanding the range of coral collections throughout the Caribbean, coral growth will be assessed
across a broader environmental gradient while providing wide-ranging proxy data to better understand the historical conditions
to which coral have been exposed.
PARTNERS:
NCRI via NOAA CSCOR
Florida Institute of Oceanography
University of Miami
University of South Florida
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