Scientists get early look at hurricane damage to Caribbean coral reefs
December 26, 2017 by Charlotte Hsu, University at Buffalo
Before and after views of a coral reef off the coast of St. John, US Virgin Islands. The reef, vibrant and full of life, is pictured in 2013 (left). The same reef is shown from a different view in 2017 (right), after hurricanes Maria and Irma tore through the region. The reef is now more sparsely populated, with many coral colonies either severely damaged or swept away. Credit: Howard Lasker
When hurricanes Maria and Irma tore through the Caribbean, they not only wreaked havoc on land, but also devastated ocean ecosystems.
Coral reefs off St. John, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, suffered severe injury during the storms, say scientists from the University at Buffalo and California State University, Northridge who traveled there in late November to assess the damage—the first step in understanding the reefs' recovery.
Some coral colonies lost branches. Others were cloaked in harmful algal growth. Many—weakened by the hurricanes—were left with ghostly, feather-like strands of bacteria hanging off open wounds where bits of coral had been scraped off.
Researchers also observed sites where whole coral colonies, akin to individual trees in a forest, had been swept away by the fury of the storms.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-scientists-early-hurricane-caribbean-coral.html#jCp
