Scubaism

Coral reefs can now be read like tree rings or glacier ice, mapping environmental change over time.

Besides climatic shifts, what emerges from these sea core samples, says Julia E. Cole, University of Arizona associate professor of Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, is a scientifically-deduced history of human land use practices spanning the past couple of hundred years.

Studies of coral reef systems in Australia and Western Africa indicate that western-style agricultural practices, introduced by Europeans, caused large-scale sustained stress upon reef systems that are as impactful, if not more so, than the usual suspects of over-harvesting, mining, and tourism.

Cole is developing geochemical records from long-lived corals, and studies the variability and impacts of large-scale climate systems throughout the tropical ocean.