Holocene Coral Growth in SE Florida

Click on the image to see larger version

 

Southeast Florida Reef Tract

• Relict backstepping reef complex
• Initiated at ~10,000 yr B.P. (~26 meters below sea level) 
• Ceased accretion at ~5,000 yr B.P. (7 meters below sea level) 
• Acroporid expansion in response to the Holocene Thermal Maximum?
• Contraction due to cooling?

 

Coastline view of Pompano Beach from the research site (Photo A. Oleinik)

 

Graduate student Alex Modys lifting a large fragment of Holocene subfossil Acropora palmata colony from the rubble at 17 feet off Pompano Beach (Photo A. Oleinik)

 

Graduate student Alex Modys sampling a sub-fossil 2500-year old coral head off the coast of Broward County, Florida. The coral — Orbicella annularis— is being collected as part of an ongoing research project that aims to reconstruct the interacting impacts of climate and intense hurricanes on coral reef development in southeast Florida during the late Holocene (Photo by A. Oleinik). 

 

Detail of unconsolidated Holocene Acropora palmata rubble (Photo A. Modys)

 

Unconsolidated Holocene Acropora palmata rubble (Photo A. Modys)

 

Consolidated Holocene  Acropora mound (Photo A. Modys)

 

Unconsolidated Holocene Acropora cervicornis rubble (Photo A. Oleinik)

 

Thicket of living Acropora cervicornis in the vicinity of the research site, 16 feet (Photo A. Oleinik) 

 

Holocene subfossil colony of Orbicella annularis (Photo A. Modys)

 

Holocene subfossil colony of Diploria strigosa  (Photo A. Modys)

 

Burial and re-exposure marks on the Holocene colony of Diploria strigosa (Photo A. Modys)

  

Large colony of Acropora palmata displaced and overturned by a hurricane waves with growth of new colonies out of old branches (Photo A. Oleinik)

 

Surface of consolidated Holocene coral rubble colonized by Acropora cervicornis and soft corals - Plexaurella and Pseudopterogorgia (Photo A. Oleinik)

 

Unconsolidated Holocene Acropora cervicornis rubble in 15 feet of water (Photo A. Oleinik) 

 

Panoramic shot of the Holocene coral rubble and mounds in 17 feet of water (Photo A. Oleinik)