[Coral-List] Caribbean Heating Up

Jim Hendee Jim.Hendee at noaa.gov
Wed Aug 23 09:41:09 EDT 2006


Greetings,

    To add some additional context to Mark Eakin's message, we have
compiled some graphics from our ICON stations at Lee Stocking Island,
Bahamas, and at La Parguera, Puerto Rico.  We can not measure actual
stress within the corals at this time, as we did last year with our
PAM-fluorometer, but the environmental stimuli/stressors shown give some
good indication of the cycle of sea temperature and light, both at the
surface and near the bottom.

    In the links below, these designations are used for file names and
titles:

    "shallow" means nominal 1m, depending upon the state of the tide
    "deep" means near the bottom, at about 6m, depending upon the tide
    "surf" means about 6m above the surface at the top of the station

    The light sensors record measurements of UV-305nm, UV-330nm,
UV-380nm and PAR.  Both the light sensors and the sea temperature 
(CTDs, actually) sensors are calibrated and maintained regularly.  These
graphics will soon be regular products of our new CHAMP/ICON site.

*North Norman's Reef ICON station, near Lee Stocking Island:*

    http://www.coral.noaa.gov/noaa/icon/2006/cmrc3-graphs/

    At this site, we did note some isolated cases of paling and
bleaching on August 4, but nothing widespread and nothing severe.

*Media Luna Reef ICON station, near La Parguera, Puerto Rico:*

    http://www.coral.noaa.gov/noaa/icon/2006/lppr1-graphs/

    Our station in St. Croix is being refurbished to the new design and
should be up and transmitting by mid-September, so hopefully those
numbers will help in evaluating the flux of the Caribbean environment,
as well.

    Cheers,
    Jim




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