JURASSIC REEF PARK: educational online article on reefs

[Reinhold Leinfelder]

Dear colleagues, 

One of the duties of reef research is to inform the public about the 
importance of reefs. 
Under this scope I would like to announce the web-launch of an 

educational geoscience online article on Jurassic Reefs: 

        The JURASSIC REEF PARK 
        (in German and English; by Reinhold Leinfelder, Stuttgart). 



The article tries to focus in a (hopefully) understandable way on the 
following subjects: 

What are the general features of modern and Ancient reefs? 
        (basic environmental demands of reefs, principal reef organisms: 
modern and ancient) 

Why were Jurassic reefs so different from modern ones? 
        (different shelf configuration, different climate, different 
circulation, different organisms) 

Can Jurassic reefs tell us more about the Jurassic world? 
        (inform about shelf configuration, climate, sea-level change etc). 

Can Jurassic reefs contribute to the understanding of present Global Change? 
        (Composition and frequencies of Jurassic reefs have changed 
drastically during a warming episode, 
         preceeding shallow water oxygen depletion; many similarities with 
present situation? 
        Reefs as climatic buffers? ) 

The URL is: 

http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/UNIuser/igps/edu/JRP/Jurassic_Reef_Park.html 

(but you also may reach the article by going through our IGPS-homepage or 
our Reefgroup Homepage, see below) 

Simplifying without making overgeneralizations and mistakes is one of the 
major problem of such an article. Any comments, suggestions and critics are 
therefore greatly welcome (and your name will naturally appear in the 
acknowledgements). The glossary and scientific annotations should be 
enlarged in the future. 

Best wishes 

Reinhold Leinfelder 

PS: Please forgive me if  you have received this or a similar mail already 
through another round-letter. 

******************************************* 
Reinhold Leinfelder 
Institut fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie der Universitaet Stuttgart 
Herdweg 51 
D-70174 Stuttgart, Germany 
e-mail: reinhold.leinfelder at po.uni-stuttgart.de 
phone: ++49-711-1211340 or -1339 
fax: ++49-711-1211341 

http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/UNIuser/igps/home.html 
How about a look at our reef group pages? 

http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/UNIuser/igps/researchfiles/reefgroup.html