2007 Handbooks

A unit recommended for all environmentalists, biologists, palaeontologists and geologists. The unit will investigate the dynamics of coral reefs: the process of formation, large and small scale controls, reef accretion, response to global warming and the changing patterns of reef dynamics/carbonate buildups through time. Special attention will be paid to biodiversity of a reef, symbiosis, recruitment, the effects of bioturbation and bioerosion, the interaction of the biota of the reef, and management of reefs. Special case studies will be undertaken on topics such as: bleaching events, outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish, on-shore logging effects, over fishing, effects of cyclones, oil pollution, sea-level rise, etc. Fieldwork will involve reef traverses (group work) in order to develop an impression of zonation across the reef flats, to identify the primary structuring organisms of each zone, and to identify 'key' elements of each zone; quadrat mapping, biomass estimates and trophic analyses in order to understand energy flow in a reef system; documentation of the change in the biogenic sediments across the reef; data collection for bioturbation and population estimates.