Weather records in corals from northern Australia (CCEP Project)

A large scale coral core drilling program was undertaken between March 1986 and April 1987. Coral cores were collected from Porites spp. bommies on reefs between Darwin and Gladstone during four field trips.Cores were drilled using a purpose built coring rig operated by divers on SCUBA. The objective was to obtain long unbroken cores, drilled close to the growth axis of the colony, which had little damage from boring organisms. Cores were collected from bommies at the following locations: Nightcliff (Darwin); Coral Bay (Port Essington); off the mouths of the Jeannie and Pascoe Rivers and Burkitt Island (Cape York); Stanley Reef (Cape Upstart); Scawfell Island (south of the Whitsunday Islands); and Masthead Island (Capricorn Bunker Group).A computer-controlled fluoromicrodensitometer (Fluorac) was constructed to simultaneously record density and fluorescence of cores and analyse these data. An image-processing system was acquired to attempt to develop a standardised technique for rapid retrieval of fluorescent band proxy records from coral cores.Water samples were collected from the rivers nearest the bommies drilled in the vicinity of Cape York. Soil and river samples were also collected from various locations in the Fitzroy catchment area. These samples were analysed to identify any humic and fulvic acid compounds present.
This project was initiated to collect long cores from Porites spp. bommies, from a wide range of locations, with the aim of establishing proxy rainfall figures for tropical Australia. The fluorescent bands in nearshore corals consist of terrestrial humic and fulvic acid compounds and the bands have been proven to be closely correlated with runoff from nearby river systems. Proxy data in corals could be invaluable in a variety of fields, including meteorology, climatology, agriculture and coastal engineering.A secondary component of this project was to trace the terrestrial components in the yellow-green fluorescent bands back to their sources to allow estimation of the contributions made by different rivers and to enable more precise estimates of zonal rainfall.

1986年3月至1987年4月，研究团队实施了一项大规模珊瑚岩芯钻探计划。四次野外考察期间，研究人员从达尔文与格拉德斯通之间海域礁体上的滨珊瑚属（Porites spp.）礁块采集了珊瑚岩芯。岩芯钻进采用定制岩芯钻机完成，操作人员为携带水肺（SCUBA）的潜水员。本次钻探的目标是获取接近珊瑚群体生长轴的完整长岩芯，且受钻蚀生物破坏程度极低。本次采集的岩芯来自以下点位的礁块：尼特克利夫（Nightcliff，达尔文）、埃辛顿港的珊瑚湾（Coral Bay）、珍妮河与帕斯科河河口外海域及伯基特岛（Burkitt Island，约克角半岛）、斯塔德利礁（Stanley Reef，厄普斯特德角）、斯科韦尔岛（Scawfell Island，降灵群岛以南）以及桅杆岛（Masthead Island，摩羯座邦克尔群岛）。
研究团队搭建了一台计算机控制的荧光显微密度计（Fluorac），可同步记录岩芯的密度与荧光信号并完成数据分析；同时购置了图像处理系统，旨在开发一套标准化技术，以快速提取珊瑚岩芯中的荧光条带代用指标记录。
研究人员从约克角半岛附近钻探礁块邻近的河流采集了水样，同时在菲茨罗伊流域（Fitzroy catchment area）的多个点位采集了土壤与河流沉积物样本，用于分析其中所含的腐殖酸（humic acid）与富里酸（fulvic acid）类化合物。
本项目最初旨在从多区域的滨珊瑚属礁块中采集长岩芯，以建立澳大利亚热带地区的降雨代用指标序列。近岸珊瑚中的荧光条带由陆地来源的腐殖酸与富里酸类化合物构成，且已有研究证实该类条带与邻近河流系统的径流密切相关。珊瑚中的代用数据在气象学、气候学、农学及海岸工程等诸多领域均具有极高应用价值。
本项目的次要研究内容为追踪黄绿色荧光条带中的陆地物质来源，以此估算不同河流的物质贡献量，进而实现对区域降雨的更精准估算。