Tropical Shallow Marine Carbonate

Coral reefs exist all over the world and are generally known as being one of the most diverse, intricate and beautiful of all existing marine habitats. They have many varying structures which are developed by algae and are symbiotic with various reef building corals which are referred to as, zooxanthellae (algae). There are many other factors such as, coralline algae, sponges and other various organisms that are combined with a number of cementation processes which also contribute to reef growth, (CORAL REEFS, 2015).

Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet. There are more than 25,000 known species of organisms and countless others that have yet to be identified (Helvarg, 2000). Reefs thrive on the shallow edge of tropical seas, most often on the eastern edge of continents along warm water currents that brush the coasts. Reefs cannot live in cold waters and are limited by ocean depth and available sunlight. Coral is the foundation of the reef community, providing a three-dimensional structure where thousands of species of vertebrates and invertebrates live and feed. Some species of coral are hard, while others soft. Some are branched, yet others are compact and rounded. Coral is made up of large

Along the coasts of rocky beaches, an intricate ecological community inhabits the ‘rocky intertidal’ areas. The variety of rocks is home to an array of slimy, squishy, and colorful organisms. This intertidal community is comprised of nine species: three different algae, three stationary filter-feeders, and three mobile consumers. The three algae, Nori Seaweed, Black Pine, and Coral Weed, are the community’s producers and inhabit the bottom of the food chain. The next three species are stationary consumers. They are Mussel, Goose Neck Barnacle, and Acorn Barnacle. Because of their consumer status, they are more competitively dominant than algae. The last three components are the mobile consumers: Whelk, Chiton, and Starfish. They

During the early to middle Palaeozoic, the northwest orientation was the main deformation features in Australia and Northern Carnarvon Basin. In Northern Carnarvon Basin, several sub-basins and Plateaus are separated by northwest oriented faults and basement highs. Cape Range Fracture Zone (CRFZ) separates the west side of Exmouth Plateau, the Long Island Fault System separates the southern boundary of Barrow Sub-Basin and Sultan Nose uplift separates the Barrow from Dumpier Sub-Basin (DAIM, 1998). During middle Palaeozoic, basin started extending to northeast direction and deformation and structures orientation shifted from the Northwest to the Northeast trend. These northeast structural features were inherited to the deformation pattern throughout Mesozoic. Intermittent rifting of Australia

shellfish and zooplankton such as foraminifera and pteropods. These organisms, especially zooplankton, are the base of the marine food chain, as they provide energy in the form of food for animals higher up the food chain. The levels of calcium carbonate, minerals that calcifying species use to build their exoskeleton, in the ocean are disturbed by the increased amounts of carbon dioxide that is being absorbed. This new absorption is causing some parts of the ocean to become unsaturated with this important compound, and therefore making them less available to the calcifying organisms that need them. Without these protective shells, organisms are unable to survive, leading to a rapid decrease in their populations.

Researchers have discovered four extinct underwater volcanoes off the coast of Sydney, Australia. These volcanoes were discovered while Australia’s national science agency (CSIRO) was searching for larval lobster breeding grounds. It is believed that these volcanoes are around 50 million years old and many scientists believe that this discovery might hold clue to how Australia separated from Australia. Scientists also believe that this discover will help us better understand the Earth’s crust and the composition of the mantle layer. While these extinct volcanoes have little affect on us today, this discovery is still important because it could potentially help us understand why Australia separated from New Zealand and, in general, why the current

The timeline of the coral reef abundant park formation starts as early as the Mesozoic Era. Following the break-up of Pangea, continental rifting of South American and Africa from North America began to take place. Due to this separation, the Atlantic Ocean basin was formed, primarily due to extrusion of volcanic rocks accompanied by the mantle plume upwelling due to crustal tension (Heatherington and Mueller, 1991). Towards the middle of the Mesozoic Era, while the Atlantic Ocean was still forming, shallow marine sediments were being deposited as they were transported from land areas to the ocean by the wind, ice, and or rivers. As marine transgression, the sea level rising due to the ocean basins filling with water continued on into the late Mesozoic Era, global warming established a marine accumulation of carbonates over the entire Florida Peninsula (Thornberry,

The coral reef surveyors were instructed to find the best sites that they believed had the most living coral and were thought to be least affected by human activities. This would allow Hodgson to determine if human activities were having an appreciable effect on the supposed pristine coral reefs, which were distant from urban centers. The invertebrate survey was undertaken at two depth intervals of 3m and 10m. Four 0.5 m wide by 20 m long belts were placed on the coral reef. Over a period of 3-5 minutes the observers counted the number of invertebrates found on the belts. The coral survey was performed, by placing four 20 m long belts on the coral substrate. At 0.5 m intervals the substrate on which the belts were lying was examined and recorded.

Anthozoans include sea anemones, gorgonians, as well as soft and hard corals. Soft corals resemble plants and have a soft structure. Hard corals form their skeleton from calcium carbonate, which eventually turns to rock. Hard corals are grouped in Order Scleractinia, which includes 40 Families and over 4,000 species (WoRMS 2018). These are the foundation of coral reefs.

Glaciation that are widespread can be identified based on the subglacial tillite, which is a thick layer of sediments that settle down beneath glaciers or ice caps. On top of this subglacial tillite layer is deposited marine carbonate, also known as cap carbonate. Based on their paleolatitude designated by glacial sediments’ paleomagnetism, it can be determined that these deposits are from equator region. The interaction between two types of sediments, marine (like carbonate) and subgacially deposited sediments, indicate that the glaciers had approached marine coastlines.

The intertidal rocky shore of Caloundra Beach is inhabited by diverse range of biodiversity of animals and plants, many of which have developed high levels of adaptations throughout their existence. The very boundary of marine and terrestrial ecosystem, this environment is subjected to extremes of the physical environment such as temperature, desiccation, wave turbulence as well the ecological interactions that commonly occur in biotic communities (e.g. competition, predation). However Rocky intertidal shores are easily accessible by humans and provide an enjoyable opportunity for passive recreation and for science and environmental education as well.

Coral Reefs: A structure of calcite skeletons built up by coral animals in warm, shallow ocean water

My research primarily involves elucidating the effect of diagenetic recrystallization on metal isotopes (Mg, Ca, and Sr) in marine carbonates and evaluating their reliability as geochemical proxies to reconstruct the paleoclimatic conditions and chemical evolution of seawater through geologic period. Geochemical cycling of Mg on the earth’s surface involves transfer of Mg from continental rocks to the ocean followed by reincorporation of Mg into the lithosphere via hydrothermal exchange at the mid-oceanic ridges and through precipitation of carbonate minerals. Since the exogenic cycle of Mg is directly linked to the global carbon cycle it is invaluable for reconstructing the climatic variability (e.g. pCO2 and temperature). The Mg isotopic composition (δ26Mg) of seawater is useful to decouple long-term variability of Mg concentration and δ26Mg of the input and output fluxes to the ocean. The δ26Mg of marine carbonates is a promising proxy for seawater δ26Mg. However, diagenetic recrystallization of calcite, which is known to impact the trace elemental and isotopic composition of carbonates significantly, can complicate the carbonate-based geochemical proxy interpretation. Therefore, it is critical to quantify the diagenetic effect on the concentrations and isotopic composition of trace elements (e.g. Mg, Ca, Sr) in carbonates to facilitate accurate proxy reconstruction.

     Coral animals begin life as free-floating larvae, but settle on the sea floor in sedentary colonies. The term "coral" applies both to these animals and to their skeletons, particularly the skeletons of stone-like corals (Discover 1997).

One of the organisms I have chosen, the Red Waratah anemone (Actinia tenebrosa) was found in the mid tide zone and the low tide zone. This anemone is the main prey of the predator Grey side-gilled sea slug, which is the other organism I have chosen,