Coral Reef Health - Coral calcification and paleoclimatology

This project is aimed at understanding how coral growth has responded to past changes in regional climate across northern Ningaloo and the Pilbara region by analysing the physical and geochemical composition of cores collected from massive coral (Porites spp.). X-ray images of the sliced coral cores provide us with information on seasonal and inter-annual changes in the density and rate of vertical extension from which we can calculate annual rates of coral growth, or more precisely, 'calcification'.

Coral cores from massive Porites spp. were collected from sites across northern Ningaloo (Tantabiddi and Coral Bay in July 2013) and the western Pilbara (Onslow to the Dampier peninsula in April 2014).