Research
Coral adventure
Sharks and stingrays added extra adventure to the latest coral research
expedition for Dr Dave Smith and Dr Dave Suggett of the Coral Reef
Research Unit in the Department of Biological Sciences. The expedition
uncovered coral reefs to be actively recovering, though it had been
thought to be lost forever as a result of climate change.
The two scientists spent three weeks on the Seychelles off the coast of
Africa researching the coral reef communities.
'The coral we found was more diverse than we could have hoped for,'
said Dr Smith. 'Colonies of one coral species were absolutely huge, the
largest of which was probably up to 700 years old, suggesting it has
survived numerous climatic events. We did not expect to find such
resilient species in a region that was devastated by the 1998 climate
event.'
He continued: 'It, of course, gives us insight into which corals will
survive and which won’t under future climate change events.'
Their work leads further weight to their optimistic view of the future
of coral reefs facing the effects of global climate change. Dr Smith
added: 'We think that the that older corals, which evolved around 100
million years ago, have likely experienced numerous climate change events
and therefore adapted to cope with stressful conditions whilst those
younger corals have not.'
Most reefs in the Seychelles develop 'opportunistically' as a result of
settling on the common granitic substratum. However, advised by the local
community to visit North Island, the pair stumbled across an actively
growing coral reef, a very rare find indeed for the Seychelles. More
importantly, this reef appeared to be acting as a nursery for juvenile
sharks, who weren’t that pleased to have visitors.
In addition to the coral research, most dives were blessed with
fantastic conditions and a wealth of underwater wildlife including sharks,
stingrays, hawksbill turtles and numerous fish. Encountering giant reef
stingrays on the anniversary of the naturalist Steve Irwin’s death was
certainly a poignant moment indeed for the expedition.
They will return next summer and, in the meantime, after their
discovery at North Island their partners in the Seychelles, the Seychelles
Centre for Marine Research and Technology - Marine Protective Area (SCMRT-MPA),
is working hard to get the reef declared a protected area.
Close encounter with circling sharks
for the scientists
Economics fun and games
How boys and girls perform at competitive games was the subject of a
large experiment on the Colchester Campus.
Professor Alison Booth and Dr Patrick Nolen, of the Department of
Economics, invited 330 16-year-old school students from Essex and Suffolk
to take part in an economics exercise.
The aim of the event was to study the factors affecting young people’s
performance while playing competitive games involving pencil and paper.
Professor Booth and Dr Nolen will be using the data they gathered to look
at how young people fare at completing simple games and what affects
girls’ and boys’ relative performance.
Some examples include peer group influences and different forms of
payment rewards that might affect competitive behaviour. The researchers
focussed on the impact of rewards in this experiment, where a variety of
rounds were played offering different forms of payment,
The research was funded by the British Academy, the Nuffield
Foundation, the Australian Research Council and the Department of
Economics.
Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:
