PhD Candidate at Bangor University & KAUST exploring the effects of upwelling on coral reef benthic communities 🪸🌊
Danielle Spring
Loading...
New paper 📢 Coral reef depth zonation patterns are not 'universal' and may be disrupted by local human impacts.
We show evidence of spatially dependent effects of depth on benthic community structure across the Pacific Ocean.
🌊🧵⬇️
Excited to share some work on spatial variability in localized upwelling regimes on coral reefs at #OSM26 today!
@sosbangor.bsky.social @eco-oce-lab.bsky.social
Bex Turner
We link positive phases of the Indian Ocean Dipole to anomalously deep surface mixed layer depths, showing that over the past 40yrs, positive dipole phases act to depress the surface mixed layer and effectively shut down upwelling across this archipelago.
Our loggers caught the 2019 Dipole event:
Using a machine learning statistical modelling framework, we identify the prominent atmospheric & oceanographic drivers of localized upwelling across an oceanic archipelago.
We reveal critical depths of the surface mixed layer where upwelling is enhanced or reduced on these shallow coral reefs.
Danielle Spring
Upwelling delivers key oceanic subsidies to coral reef communities, supporting high biological productivity.
Changes to ocean stratification with climate change may restrict this natural phenomenon, removing a potential mechanism of temperature reprieve & nutrient delivery under a warming ocean.
Big thanks to @remotereefs.bsky.social, @miked-fox.bsky.social and all our co-authors for making this work happen as part of my PhD 🌊🪸
Photo above taken by Prof. Rob Dunbar from our 2022 expedition to the Chagos Archipelgo, where this data was collected.
Using high resolution temperature observations from 10-25 m depth over 18 months, we quantify the upwelling regime across ~200km of an oceanic archipelago in the central Indian Ocean.
We use Degree Cooling Hours (DCH) as an integrated metric of the duration and magnitude of upwelling events.
New paper!
‘Climate change impacts to upwelling and shallow reef nutrient sources across an oceanic archipelago’
Out now in Limnology and Oceanography @aslo.org
aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
⬇️🧵
Protecting existing coral reefs MUST be our priority.
A message that's been voiced several times before by @profterryhughes.bsky.social and others, but one that we should not lose sight of.
My short 'News&Views' piece in @natureecoevo.bsky.social
Link: tinyurl.com/2jfskntd
