University of Mexico, Academic Institute, Puerto Morelos, Q. Roo.
Two major projects are currently conducted at this site:
Refining the accuracy of coral-based sea level curves
Similar suites of calcareous encrusters and bioeroders are present throughout the world’s reefs and exhibit similar zonations of species and adaptive morphological growth forms in response to physical factors such as light and wave exposure. Analysis of the depth distribution of encruster sequences could, therefore, provide a global key to reliable reconstructions of post-glacial sea level rise. Research in México has expanded the use of encrusters and bioeroders for high resolution zonation of reef crest sequences. We have recently further contributed to this knowledge base by using artificial microhabitats to determine the distributional trends of contemporary calcareous encrusters in reef sub-environment s. . However, the consistency of these distributional trends is now being tested at each locality using drill cores into the reef substrate. These cores have been drilled and the data and logs from these reef cores can be compared to the predictive data already analysed from artificial substrates. This is particularly important given that there is currently no widely accepted coral assemblage in the Indo-pacific region that can used as an indicator of sea level and a common encruster/bioeroder assemblage would address such difficulties.
Global patterns in coral-associated microbial diversity
Microorganisms are of fundamental importance in the carbon/nitrogen cycling in marine systems such as coral reefs. Coral-associated microbial communities have been shown to be extremely diverse and abundant. These diverse communities are distinctly partitioned between various coral niches including the surrounding seawater, the coral surface mucus layer, and within the coral tissue. Microorganisms associated with corals are comprised of distinct functional groups such as possible roles in coral nutrition. Furthermore, there have been an increasing number of reports over the last 10 years of identifying microorganisms as the causal agents of coral reef diseases. It is therefore extremely important to understand the associations between corals and the in situ microbial communities at a global scale. Previous studies have generally focused on the microbial populations within specific geographical regions such as the Caribbean or Indo-pacific. However, there is a paucity of information on the temporal and spatial changes in the microbial populations associated with Caribbean corals compared to those of the Indo-pacific. DNA-based methods are being used here which allow a more targeted approach to analyse coral-associated microbial diversity, activity and abundance between two of the world’s main reef bio-regions.
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