Coral Reefs
Coral Reefs
Filter Total Items: 17
Developing a USGS Digital Coral Growth Archive using Rotating X-Ray Computerized Tomography - The ACTS Project
The Archival Computed Tomography Scanning Project (ACTS) currently develops the USGS Coral Core Archive, housed at the Pacific and St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Centers, that contains approximately 500 coral reef cores from U.S. jurisdictions worldwide. This archive, is one of the largest coral archives in the world and provides historical context for coral-reef science studies...
Diadema antillarum Mass Mortality
Diadema antillarum scuticociliatosis (DaSc) is an emerging infectious disease affecting sea urchins of the genus Diadema . Caused by a ciliate most closely related to Philaster apodigitiformis , the infection caused mass mortalities of urchins in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas in 2022-2023.
Integrating Science and Management to Assist with the Response to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
A USGS multi-disciplinary team will use laboratory and modeling approaches to investigate the cause of stony coral tissue loss disease.
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards: Coastal | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico: Costas
This page is a collection of USGS coastal hazard research in Puerto Rico, including shoreline changes, coral reef assessments, and coastal flooding. A brief description of highlighted projects can be found below. All coastal hazard publications, data releases, and news for Puerto Rico can be accessed on this page. Esta página es una recopilación de investigaciones del USGS sobre los riesgos...
USGS Role in DEEP SEARCH: Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral, Canyon, and Cold-seep Habitats
USGS scientists are collaborating with multiple agencies to provide the esssential foundation for understanding these deep-sea environments.
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization, Gulf of Mexico
Microbial Processes on Reefs
The microbial community on coral reefs is generally underappreciated given the ubiquity, abundance, complexity, and formative role these prokaryotes serve in the metabolic and chemical processes on reefs. We use microbiological and metagenomic techniques to decipher the roles the microbial community are playing in processes such as coral disease, submarine groundwater discharge, calcification, and...
Coral Microbial Ecology
The coral microbial ecology group has an active research program identifying and characterizing the microbial associates of both tropical and cold-water (deep-sea) corals and their surrounding habitat. Current projects focus on coral disease dynamics, bacterial diversity, and using metagenomics to elucidate the functional roles of coral microbes.
DISCOVRE - Diversity, Systematics and Connectivity of Vulnerable Reef Ecosystems Project
This project uses amplicon sequencing, and functional microarrays to examine the microbiomes of several deep-sea coral species, with priority given to species that are also of interest to the population genetics group: Desmophyllum dianthus, Lophelia pertusa , Enallopsammia sp., and Acanthogorgia sp. The project also uses metagenomics to survey benthic habitats including coral mounds, cold seeps...
Coral Reef Ecosystem Studies (CREST)
The specific objectives of this project are to identify and describe the processes that are important in determining rates of coral-reef construction. How quickly the skeletons of calcifying organisms accumulate to form massive barrier-reef structure is determined by processes of both construction (how fast organisms grow and reproduce) and destruction (how fast reefs break down by mechanical...
Black-band disease in the Florida Keys
Photos of corals affected by black-band disease in the Florida Keys.
Modeling Seafloor Structural Complexity
This effort focused on understanding the patterns and scalability of roughness and topographic complexity of marine habitats, such as coral reefs.
Along-Track Reef Imaging System (ATRIS)
ATRIS is a benthic-survey tool that simultaneously acquires geo-located, color, digital images with corresponding water depths.