Currents Fall 2012 Newsletter - Volume XXVII, Number 2

6 In the Lab STONY CORAL LABORATORY Researcher: Richard Dodge, Ph.D. Associated Scientist: Kevin Helmle, Ph.D. “With the guidance that the present is key to the past, coral skeletons and reefs are investigated to better understand the history of past growth and construction that can inform projections of future reef and related changes.” Research Focus: Sclerochronology is the study of the time- dependent growth of the coral skeleton for reconstruction of past environmental and climate histories of the ocean. Research Activities: • analyses of coral skeletal growth • growth chronology construction and study for historical reconstruction • structure of coral reefs • extension, density, and calcification of coral skeletons • reef geology and time history • elevated coral reefs • ecosystem services and habitat equivalency analysis • coral reef restoration Core and x-radiograph of 300-year- old reef building coral sampled off Hollywood, Florida. This specimen tells the history of changing sea conditions, especially the drainage of the everglades. (Left) X-radiograph of slab revealing annual density bands. These have been dated with reference to the collection date. (right) Slab taken from a core sample of a coral skeleton. The Johnson-Sea-Link submersible back on the surface after a dive to 800 m to collect deep-sea animals DEEP SEA BIOLOGY LABORATORY Researcher: Tamara Frank, Ph.D. “What happens in the deep sea affects everything that happens on the surface, and what happens on the surface affects what happens in the deep sea. You cannot influence one part of the ecosystem without impacting the global ecosystem.” Research Focus: Research involves visual physiology of deep-sea animals and zooplankton ecology, with emphasis on effects of down welling light on their daytime distribution patterns and vertical migrations. Research Activities: • examination of plankton biodiversity, particularly over coral and other hard-bottom communities • visual physiology • deep-sea ecosystems • bioluminescence • vertical migrations of macrozooplankton and micronekton • effects of oil spills on deep-sea crustaceans Phronima sedenteria , a deep-sea crustacean that uses biological light guides to help it see