Australian scientists discover deep sea corals
AUSTRALIA: Australian scientists mapping the Great Barrier Reef have
discovered corals at depths never before thought possible, with a
deep-sea robot finding specimens in waters nearly as dark as night.
A team from the University of Queensland's Seaview Survey announced
the unprecedented discovery 125 metres (410 feet) below the surface at
Ribbon Reef, near the Torres Strait and at the edge of the Australian
continental shelf.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist on the project, told AFP on
Thursday that coral had previously only been shown to exist to depths of
70 metres and the finding could bring new understanding about how reefs
spawn and grow.
"What's really cool is that these corals still have photosynthetic
symibionts that supposedly still harvest the light," Hoegh-Guldberg told
AFP. "It's interesting to know how they can handle such low light
conditions -- it's very deep dusk, you can barely make out much at the
bottom." Researchers were particularly interested in how the coral
reproduced at such depths. Shallow corals mate in a synchronised
spawning event triggered by the moon which Hoegh-Guldberg said would be
"very hard to see" at 125m.
"We don't know the answer to that yet, they may be doing very
different things to what shallow water corals do," he said.
The deep water corals had been found to have weathered storms on the
reef much better than those closer to the surface and he said the team
was also looking at how ocean acidification and warming was impacting
deeper reefs.
Hoegh-Guldberg said the team had been lucky to be able to dispatch
the diving robot -- unusually calm conditions had allowed their ship to
stop on the windward side of the reef where large waves typically
prevent access.
"No one's ever seen these places. It's pretty rare on the planet
today," he said.
The survey has had a number of successes, with checks underway on a
number of specimens Hoegh-Guldberg said were thought to be new species
records for Australia "and may even be completely new to science".
"It's just showing that we do have rich communities that can reach
into the deep water," he said.
AFP |