WEBVTT

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<v Kelly>Good evening.</v>

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We're pleased to have you join us

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for our annual Seaside Chat speaker series

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about ocean topics associated with Flower Garden Banks

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National Marine Sanctuary and the Gulf of Mexico.

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This year, we are also part of the National Marine

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Sanctuary webinar series

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hosted by NOAA's office of National Marine Sanctuaries,

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as well as the NOAA's science seminar series.

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During the presentation,

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all attendees will be in listen only mode.

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You are welcome to type questions for the presenter

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into the question box in the bottom of the control panel

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on the right hand side of your screen.

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This is the same area you can let us know

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about any technical issues you may be having.

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We will be monitoring incoming questions

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and technical issues,

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and we'll respond to them as soon as we can.

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We are recording this session and we'll post the recording

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to the National Marine Sanctuaries

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and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary websites.

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We will notify registered participants via email

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when these recordings are available.

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And for those of you who are interested,

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we provided a classroom lesson

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called Coral Cores: Ocean Timelines,

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as well as a document of links

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to additional resources on today's topic.

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These items are available in the handout pane

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of the control panel.

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Simply click on them to download them.

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The Seaside Chat speaker series

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began as a way for Flower Garden Banks

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National Marine Sanctuary to share current research

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and management efforts in the Gulf of Mexico

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in an informal setting.

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These chats started in 2012 with presentations

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in the gift shop of the Galveston Fishing Pier.

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And then from one year to the next,

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we moved around the Galveston Texas community

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hosting presentations at Moody Gardens, Texas A&amp;M Galveston,

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Texas Seaport Museum, and Sea Star Base Galveston.

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In 2020, we brought the presentations home to our offices

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at historic Fort Crockett

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just before the world shut down for a pandemic.

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Although we have offered webinar connections

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during our live events for many years,

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it wasn't until 2021 that we went completely virtual,

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and joined forces with the National Marine Sanctuary

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webinar series.

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In all that time,

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our Seaside Chats only missed one year, 2019,

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which makes this our 10th year of presentations.

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We've chosen to recognize this milestone with a new graphic.

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We hope you agree with us

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that this comfortable chair by the sea

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captures the essence of our program.

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Hello everyone, my name is Kelly Drinnen

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and I'm the education outreach specialist

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for Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

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I'm not at my usual place today.

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Today, I'll be facilitating the webinar

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from the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian islands,

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where I've been personally checking up on things

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associated with next week's topic, Humpback Whales.

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Due to this,

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I have some issues is with my internet connection

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from time to time.

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So today I also have with me, as usual Leslie Whaylen Clift,

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our constituency affairs coordinator,

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and Leslie will be helping me

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with the backend administration of this webinar

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and then filling in for me

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should I have any difficulties with my internet connection.

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50 years ago,

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the United States ushered in a new era of ocean conservation

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by creating the National Marine Sanctuary System.

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Since then, we've grown into a nationwide network

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of 15 National Marine Sanctuaries

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and two Marine National Monuments

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that conserve more than 620,000 square miles

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of spectacular ocean and great lakes waters,

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an area nearly the size of Alaska.

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These marine protected areas

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are kind of like national parks and national forests,

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but under water.

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In celebration of this 50th anniversary,

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we are running a save spectacular campaign

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across the entire sanctuary system.

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A way to remind everyone just how special these places are.

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The National Marine Sanctuaries Act

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gives NOAA the authority to designate

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special areas of the marine environment

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as National Marine Sanctuaries.

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It also mandates

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that the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

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conduct research, monitoring, resource protection,

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education outreach, and management

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of America's underwater treasures

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to preserve them for future generations.

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In addition to being places for recreation and research,

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National Marine Sanctuaries are also living classrooms

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where people can see, touch, and learn

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about the nation's great lakes and ocean treasures.

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This webinar series is just one part

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of that national education and outreach effort.

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Today's Seaside Chat series

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is hosted by Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary,

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the only National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico.

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This sanctuary consists of 17 banks,

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or small underwater mountains,

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that are home to some of the healthiest coral reefs

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in the world, amazing algal/sponge communities

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and deep reef habitats featuring

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an abundance of black coral.

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The original sanctuary designation

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took place in January 1992,

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meaning that we just celebrated our 30th anniversary

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a few weeks ago.

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As you can see,

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2022 is turning out to be quite the anniversary year!

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Today's presentation focuses on the stories

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that the skeletons of living corals can tell us

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about climate history.

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The skeletons of massive corals grow in layers,

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similar to tree rings,

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that can be counted to determine the years of growth.

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Scientists can look at the chemistry of each of these layers

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to see what the water temperature was

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when that part of the coral skeleton was growing,

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as well as other indicators of environmental conditions.

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By stringing together these yearly skeletal records,

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scientists can chronicle how the ocean

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and the coral reef have changed over time.

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Our speaker today will tell us how she uncovers

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what the corals can tell us.

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Today we welcome Dr. Kristine DeLong

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to talk about her work in paleo-oceanography

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and paleoclimatology.

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Dr. DeLong joined the department of geography

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and anthropology at Louisiana State University

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in August 2009, after completing her PhD in Marine Science

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at University of South Florida

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and her post-doctoral research

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at the US Geological Survey in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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Dr. DeLong has expertise in paleo-oceanography

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and paleoclimatology with 17 years of research experience.

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Her research is focused on climate change of the past,

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primarily in the tropics to tropical regions,

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subtropics to tropical regions for the past 130,000 years.

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Current projects include investigating shifts

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in sea surface temperature and ocean circulation

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in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea

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using the chemical variations

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of the skeletons of large boulder size corals,

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which can live for many centuries.

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Her coral reconstruction from the Dry Tortugas,

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the westernmost Florida Key,

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is a 274 year long temperature record.

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She has also published a paper on the past, present

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and future of coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Her newest project funded by the National Science Foundation

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will build coral based temperature reconstructions

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for Veracruz, Mexico,

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Flower Garden Banks in the Northern Gulf of Mexico,

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Haiti, Dominican Republican,

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Dominican Republic, excuse me,

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Virgin Islands and Little Cayman Island.

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And she will work with researchers at University of Oklahoma

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on comparing these results to climate models

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to better understand past and future climate change.

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She is also the lead principle investigator

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of an exciting project, just funded for phase II,

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investigating a bald Cypress swamp forest

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found 13 kilometers offshore of Alabama

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in the Gulf of Mexico,

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assumed to be uncovered by a hurricane.

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These trees grew during the last glacial interval,

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70,000 to 50,000 years ago,

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when global sea level was more than 20 meters

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lower than today.

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Welcome, Kristine.

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<v Kristine>Thank you so much.</v>

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So sorry, I got unmuted myself and I'll turn on my webcam.

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<v Kelly>That's quite alright.</v>

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<v ->All right.</v>

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<v Kelly>All right, and Leslie,</v>

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please hand over the sharing...

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<v ->All right.</v>

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<v Kelly>There we go. Perfect.</v>

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<v ->So we should be all set.</v>

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<v Kelly>Yes. Take it away.</v>

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<v ->All right, thank you so much for having me</v>

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and I'm excited to show some of our latest work

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through the pandemic these past two years.

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So I'm excited to show this work

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and my cover slide here, this is from Flower Garden Banks

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almost 10 years ago

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when I had a wonderful opportunity to go out there

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and dive this beautiful coral reef.

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And the work that I'm gonna show you

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is a combination of lots of different people involved

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in the research

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and I'll go over the acknowledgements at the end

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but I do want to mention that

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lots of people have been involved in this project,

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along with our funding agencies that support this work.

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So you may have seen

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graphs like I'm showing here,

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that shows the temperature change over the last 1,000 years.

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And in this we'll see that part of this last 1,000 years

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is covered by instrumental records.

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But before that,

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this information is all coming from paleo climate records.

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And I'm a paleo-climatologist and we study the past

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so we can use that as a key to understand the present

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and the future.

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And this is important when we start to think about

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what's happening on our planet for the last 100 or so years.

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So how do paleo-climatologists do our work?

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We use natural archives

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and we look for particular archives that have layers in them

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so that we can use that to figure out where we are in time.

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And many of you may be familiar with tree rings,

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where we can count the rings in a tree

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to figure out what year it is.

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So we have lots of different natural archives

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that have similar layers in them that we can use.

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So one you may be familiar with is ice cores.

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And ice cores have layers in them

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that we can count to figure out where we are in time.

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And these ice cores also contain little

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air bubbles in them

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that are time capsules of what was happening

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in the atmosphere in the past.

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And by looking at long ice core records,

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we can directly measure

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how much CO2 is in the atmosphere in the past,

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but also the temperature of these locations in the past.

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And this gives us these really nice long records

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of the ice ages for the last 800,000 years.

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So we know that CO2 and temperature move lockstep

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with each other.

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And I'm gonna show this graph for another reason.

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We're only here today on the far right.

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This is our present conditions.

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And I'm gonna take you back in time through the Holocene

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and we're gonna go all the way back to the last interglacial

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by the time we get to the end of this talk.

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So let's go back to corals,

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'cause this is the natural archive

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I use for a lot of my work.

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And the reason we use corals

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is they have layers in 'em as Kelly mentioned

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that we can use to count and go back in time.

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So to see these layers,

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you have to take an x-ray of the coral skeleton.

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So we go out and take a core

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and once we get the core back to the lab,

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we cut a slab out of it.

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So we take that core, we cut it up

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like you're slicing bread.

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And once we get that slab,

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we can expose it to an x-ray device

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00:12:26.040 --> 00:12:30.237
and we can now see in this x-ray image, these layers.

267
00:12:30.237 --> 00:12:33.100
And each one of these white bands here,

268
00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.560
this is denoting that we've switched a year.

269
00:12:35.560 --> 00:12:39.360
So we can use these layers within the coral skeleton

270
00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:42.330
to figure out where we are in time.

271
00:12:42.330 --> 00:12:47.000
Now, this gives us a lot of tools that we can use

272
00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:51.470
to reconstruct past environmental conditions.

273
00:12:51.470 --> 00:12:55.420
So we like to use corals because they grow continuously

274
00:12:55.420 --> 00:12:57.840
and they grow for many centuries.

275
00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.270
And this gives us these really nice

276
00:13:00.270 --> 00:13:02.140
annually resolved records

277
00:13:02.140 --> 00:13:04.970
that we can use for our reconstructions.

278
00:13:04.970 --> 00:13:08.820
So the primary tools I use in my research

279
00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:13.760
as we look at the chemistry in the skeleton,

280
00:13:13.760 --> 00:13:17.420
so we look at isotopes and we also look at trace elements

281
00:13:17.420 --> 00:13:19.000
because as the coral's growing,

282
00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.360
it's recording what's in the water around it

283
00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:24.200
and also its environment.

284
00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:28.610
So every year that coral skeleton gives us a natural archive

285
00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:30.810
of what was happening in the ocean

286
00:13:30.810 --> 00:13:33.053
at the time that coral was growing.

287
00:13:34.230 --> 00:13:36.650
And we can do this with live corals.

288
00:13:36.650 --> 00:13:39.740
We prefer to use the massive boulder shaped corals,

289
00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:42.140
'cause these are the corals that live the longest.

290
00:13:42.140 --> 00:13:45.770
We can also use dead or sub fossil corals

291
00:13:45.770 --> 00:13:47.910
to go back further in time

292
00:13:47.910 --> 00:13:51.130
to investigate what's happened with past climate

293
00:13:51.130 --> 00:13:52.373
and the environment.

294
00:13:53.650 --> 00:13:56.420
So the study sites that I've been working on

295
00:13:56.420 --> 00:13:57.680
the past 10 years,

296
00:13:57.680 --> 00:14:00.250
all around the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean,

297
00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:02.530
and I'll be working in these same locations

298
00:14:02.530 --> 00:14:05.450
for probably the next 10 to 15 years,

299
00:14:05.450 --> 00:14:08.600
so today I'm gonna talk a lot about the work we've done

300
00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:10.460
at Flower Garden Banks.

301
00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:13.710
I'll also show some data from Dry Tortugas

302
00:14:13.710 --> 00:14:16.680
and some new results we have from the Cayman islands

303
00:14:16.680 --> 00:14:19.203
and also Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

304
00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:22.270
So one of the things I'm doing

305
00:14:22.270 --> 00:14:25.050
as part of our National Science Foundation work

306
00:14:25.050 --> 00:14:28.780
is building this network of reconstruction

307
00:14:28.780 --> 00:14:30.220
throughout this whole region

308
00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:31.950
so we can understand what's happened

309
00:14:31.950 --> 00:14:36.250
with climate variability in the past 125,000 years.

310
00:14:38.300 --> 00:14:40.690
Now, another project I've been involved

311
00:14:40.690 --> 00:14:42.910
in the past three years

312
00:14:42.910 --> 00:14:46.220
is the Anthropocene Working Group.

313
00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:51.220
And this group is looking for a geological record

314
00:14:51.290 --> 00:14:56.290
that geologists can use as a marker for the Anthropocene.

315
00:14:56.590 --> 00:15:00.080
And the Anthropocene is the time period

316
00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.660
where humans have changed the earth

317
00:15:02.660 --> 00:15:05.260
to the point where we can now recognize it

318
00:15:05.260 --> 00:15:07.770
in the geological record.

319
00:15:07.770 --> 00:15:11.910
So the potential markers we're looking at

320
00:15:11.910 --> 00:15:14.090
with the Anthropocene Working Group

321
00:15:14.090 --> 00:15:16.520
is the burning of fossil fuels.

322
00:15:16.520 --> 00:15:20.160
And we see as we get into the late 20th century,

323
00:15:20.160 --> 00:15:24.460
we get this rapid increase in black carbon emissions.

324
00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:27.760
We also have billions and tons of concrete

325
00:15:27.760 --> 00:15:29.960
and plastics that have been produced

326
00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:32.730
that are also changing the environment.

327
00:15:32.730 --> 00:15:34.220
But the Anthropocene Working Group

328
00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:36.980
are really starting to lean towards

329
00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:39.510
looking at the nuclear bomb testing.

330
00:15:39.510 --> 00:15:43.940
And what we see worldwide is this doubling

331
00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:48.940
of radioactive carbon in the atmosphere that starts in 1955.

332
00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:52.470
We're also looking at plutonium spikes

333
00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:55.900
so all products of these nuclear testing.

334
00:15:55.900 --> 00:15:58.340
And we see this in lots of different archives

335
00:15:58.340 --> 00:16:00.100
around the world.

336
00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:03.300
So hopefully when we get to the end of this project,

337
00:16:03.300 --> 00:16:06.640
we will be able to update the geologic time scale

338
00:16:06.640 --> 00:16:11.143
with a new epoch of the Anthropocene.

339
00:16:12.290 --> 00:16:15.470
Now we've got several locations that are being examined

340
00:16:15.470 --> 00:16:18.770
as potential global boundary locations

341
00:16:18.770 --> 00:16:20.740
for this Anthropocene marker

342
00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:23.930
and Flower Garden Banks is the one I'm working on

343
00:16:23.930 --> 00:16:25.940
and I'm gonna show you some of the results

344
00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:27.073
from this project.

345
00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:32.650
So first let's go back and look at

346
00:16:32.650 --> 00:16:34.240
how we're doing our coral work.

347
00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:37.610
So here's photos from coring some large corals

348
00:16:37.610 --> 00:16:39.310
down in Dry Tortugas.

349
00:16:39.310 --> 00:16:42.150
So this was back in 2008.

350
00:16:42.150 --> 00:16:47.150
We also work with corals that have been uplifted in Haiti

351
00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:51.210
during the earthquake that happened in 2010.

352
00:16:51.210 --> 00:16:53.320
So these corals are actually out of the water

353
00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:55.040
due to that earthquake.

354
00:16:55.040 --> 00:17:00.040
And we recovered pie slices out of these corals to work on.

355
00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:02.887
We also work on fossil corals

356
00:17:02.887 --> 00:17:05.980
that have been washed up on the beaches.

357
00:17:05.980 --> 00:17:08.280
This is a photo from Little Cayman,

358
00:17:08.280 --> 00:17:13.280
where we're coring some of these fossil reefs back in 2018.

359
00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:17.170
And once we get these corals back to the lab,

360
00:17:17.170 --> 00:17:21.300
we're gonna slice them like bread, start taking our x-rays

361
00:17:21.300 --> 00:17:24.610
and we'll start working on our chemistry.

362
00:17:24.610 --> 00:17:28.220
So in the laboratory, once we get the x-rays,

363
00:17:28.220 --> 00:17:31.730
we figure out our years, we'll go in with our micro mill

364
00:17:31.730 --> 00:17:34.770
and we can go in with tools that are a lot like

365
00:17:34.770 --> 00:17:37.270
a dentist drilling your teeth.

366
00:17:37.270 --> 00:17:39.240
And with these tools,

367
00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:43.760
we can go in very precisely onto the coral skeleton

368
00:17:43.760 --> 00:17:47.290
and start to extract powders from the skeleton

369
00:17:47.290 --> 00:17:49.110
where we know what year,

370
00:17:49.110 --> 00:17:51.490
we can get really close to the month

371
00:17:51.490 --> 00:17:55.400
and start to reconstruct these chemical histories

372
00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:59.820
of what happened to this coral going back through time.

373
00:17:59.820 --> 00:18:03.520
So we use lots of different chemical proxies.

374
00:18:03.520 --> 00:18:04.810
And we call 'em proxies

375
00:18:04.810 --> 00:18:08.010
because these chemistries tell us something about

376
00:18:08.010 --> 00:18:10.740
an environmental variable we're interested in.

377
00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:15.110
So what I use quite a bit is the strontium calcium ratio

378
00:18:15.110 --> 00:18:16.630
in the coral

379
00:18:16.630 --> 00:18:20.120
and this ratio, the strontium,

380
00:18:20.120 --> 00:18:23.340
replaces calcium in the coral skeleton,

381
00:18:23.340 --> 00:18:27.160
and that relationship is driven by temperature.

382
00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:29.930
We also look at oxygen isotopes,

383
00:18:29.930 --> 00:18:32.430
so the stable oxygen isotopes.

384
00:18:32.430 --> 00:18:36.787
And these will vary in water with temperature

385
00:18:36.787 --> 00:18:41.680
and also with the delta 18 O value of the seawater itself,

386
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.290
which changes due to salinity.

387
00:18:44.290 --> 00:18:49.290
So by combining delta 18 O and strontium calcium

388
00:18:49.430 --> 00:18:52.750
we can start to reconstruct what's happening with salinity

389
00:18:52.750 --> 00:18:55.140
in the ocean as well.

390
00:18:55.140 --> 00:18:58.670
We have other chemical proxies we use.

391
00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:02.423
So barium calcium is one I'll show you some data from today.

392
00:19:03.300 --> 00:19:05.670
We also have other temperature proxies

393
00:19:05.670 --> 00:19:07.700
that we're actually in the process

394
00:19:07.700 --> 00:19:11.020
of running these samples in the lab this week.

395
00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:14.753
So magnesium, lithium, and uranium.

396
00:19:15.660 --> 00:19:17.960
We also look at rare earth elements

397
00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:20.340
that tell us something about dust and wind.

398
00:19:20.340 --> 00:19:22.620
We also look at carbon isotopes,

399
00:19:22.620 --> 00:19:25.470
which tell us about cloudiness and productivity

400
00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:27.290
and some other things.

401
00:19:27.290 --> 00:19:29.950
And we can also use other dating methods,

402
00:19:29.950 --> 00:19:32.610
which we need to do for our dead corals,

403
00:19:32.610 --> 00:19:34.450
that we did not core live.

404
00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:38.600
So we can use uranium-thorium dating and radiocarbon dating.

405
00:19:38.600 --> 00:19:42.200
And uranium-thorium dating is very precise.

406
00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:45.980
So we can get down to the half year to a hundred years

407
00:19:45.980 --> 00:19:49.143
on those dating precisions with that particular method.

408
00:19:50.010 --> 00:19:53.823
So that's how we do what we do with our coral chemistry.

409
00:19:54.870 --> 00:19:59.560
So this just is some photos of my lab here at LSU.

410
00:19:59.560 --> 00:20:02.150
We have our instrumentation to measure

411
00:20:02.150 --> 00:20:04.720
these trace elements in the lab.

412
00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:07.990
We also have a new water isotope analyzer

413
00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:12.430
that we will start doing oxygen isotope measurements

414
00:20:12.430 --> 00:20:13.680
in seawater.

415
00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:16.090
And I have some folks or some pictures here

416
00:20:16.090 --> 00:20:18.090
of our students working in the lab,

417
00:20:18.090 --> 00:20:21.550
either weighing out samples or working on the micro-mill

418
00:20:21.550 --> 00:20:23.933
extracting samples from a coral skeleton.

419
00:20:25.260 --> 00:20:28.240
So just to kind of orient you to

420
00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.450
some of the data that I'm gonna show you,

421
00:20:30.450 --> 00:20:34.240
it's from a coral from West Flower Garden Bank.

422
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.900
So it's at about 60 feet of water depth

423
00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:40.840
on the north side of the west bank.

424
00:20:40.840 --> 00:20:45.010
And here's some photos from that coring trip back in 2005.

425
00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:50.410
And this is the top of that coral we've been working on

426
00:20:50.410 --> 00:20:52.340
for the past two years.

427
00:20:52.340 --> 00:20:55.040
So I've had multiple students and colleagues,

428
00:20:55.040 --> 00:20:57.220
sampling this coral,

429
00:20:57.220 --> 00:20:59.410
doing different types of reconstructions

430
00:20:59.410 --> 00:21:01.333
that I'm gonna show you the data from.

431
00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:06.430
So first let's look at our Anthropocene markers.

432
00:21:06.430 --> 00:21:10.000
So this is some new data we got in December

433
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.360
from our radiocarbon results.

434
00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:18.360
And with this sample, we've now gone to annual samples

435
00:21:18.790 --> 00:21:23.710
and we're looking at that radiocarbon spike that occurs

436
00:21:23.710 --> 00:21:27.520
as we start to have more nuclear testing going on

437
00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:29.030
in the atmosphere.

438
00:21:29.030 --> 00:21:31.450
So you can see in the graph it's quite flat.

439
00:21:31.450 --> 00:21:33.830
So we get to 1955

440
00:21:33.830 --> 00:21:36.360
and then we start to see the sharp increase

441
00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:40.390
that really starts to move up after 1958,

442
00:21:40.390 --> 00:21:43.860
once the nuclear testing really starts to take off.

443
00:21:43.860 --> 00:21:47.540
When we get into the late 1960s,

444
00:21:47.540 --> 00:21:50.340
the nuclear test bans come into play

445
00:21:50.340 --> 00:21:53.140
and atmospheric testing stops.

446
00:21:53.140 --> 00:21:57.790
And we start to see this decrease after the 1970s.

447
00:21:57.790 --> 00:21:59.920
So this is one of the markers

448
00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:03.600
the Anthropocene group is very keen to use

449
00:22:03.600 --> 00:22:06.040
for their geological marker.

450
00:22:06.040 --> 00:22:08.840
And that's because we see it in a lot of locations

451
00:22:08.840 --> 00:22:10.050
around the world.

452
00:22:10.050 --> 00:22:14.090
And Flower Garden Banks nicely shows this marker.

453
00:22:14.090 --> 00:22:16.810
So not only in our Siderastrea siderea coral,

454
00:22:16.810 --> 00:22:20.440
but we also see it in other coral species

455
00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:22.040
in Flower Garden Banks,

456
00:22:22.040 --> 00:22:24.883
but also down in Vera Cruz, Mexico as well.

457
00:22:26.530 --> 00:22:30.180
Now another marker we see for the Anthropocene

458
00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:32.970
in this coral from Flower Garden Banks

459
00:22:32.970 --> 00:22:35.400
is in the carbon stable isotopes.

460
00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:38.270
And that's the data I'm showing you here.

461
00:22:38.270 --> 00:22:39.810
And what I want you to notice

462
00:22:39.810 --> 00:22:42.610
is that there is a large decline

463
00:22:42.610 --> 00:22:46.990
over 69 years of data that I'm showing you here.

464
00:22:46.990 --> 00:22:51.990
And this decline is also seen if we look at global,

465
00:22:54.570 --> 00:22:57.270
or sorry, carbon isotope measurements from Mauna Loa

466
00:22:57.270 --> 00:22:59.040
and the South Pole.

467
00:22:59.040 --> 00:23:02.010
So what we're seeing in the atmosphere

468
00:23:02.010 --> 00:23:05.400
for our carbon isotopes is also being recorded

469
00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:07.440
in our geological record,

470
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.970
our coral from Flower Garden Banks.

471
00:23:09.970 --> 00:23:14.537
So we're seeing for the same time interval from 1980 to 2005

472
00:23:15.630 --> 00:23:20.050
a 0.9 per mil decline in Flower Gardens.

473
00:23:20.050 --> 00:23:23.100
So we're getting a good geological record now

474
00:23:23.100 --> 00:23:25.810
with what's happening in the atmosphere.

475
00:23:25.810 --> 00:23:28.830
So you may be wondering, well, how does this work?

476
00:23:28.830 --> 00:23:31.690
Where is this being driven by?

477
00:23:31.690 --> 00:23:35.170
So these carbon stable isotopes are changing

478
00:23:35.170 --> 00:23:39.830
because we are taking fossil fuels out of the ground

479
00:23:39.830 --> 00:23:41.500
and burning them.

480
00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:44.330
And these fossil fuels have been long buried,

481
00:23:44.330 --> 00:23:48.730
and they have very negative carbon isotope values.

482
00:23:48.730 --> 00:23:51.070
And as we burn the carbon,

483
00:23:51.070 --> 00:23:55.797
the carbon stable isotope signature in the atmosphere

484
00:23:55.797 --> 00:24:00.160
and the oceans is changing and it's becoming more negative.

485
00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:02.700
And as we extend this back in time,

486
00:24:02.700 --> 00:24:06.713
we see that this coincides with the industrial revolution.

487
00:24:09.380 --> 00:24:13.480
So another proxy we're looking at at Flower Garden Banks

488
00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:16.427
is barium in seawater.

489
00:24:16.427 --> 00:24:21.130
And this is work we started just as the pandemic

490
00:24:21.130 --> 00:24:22.840
was coming in.

491
00:24:22.840 --> 00:24:25.090
So I had an international student, Mudi,

492
00:24:25.090 --> 00:24:27.060
He's sitting there in Sri Lanka

493
00:24:27.060 --> 00:24:29.730
on top of a beautiful fossil coral.

494
00:24:29.730 --> 00:24:31.890
So he came to LSU in February

495
00:24:31.890 --> 00:24:34.660
and we got about a month's worth of lab work done

496
00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:37.620
before we got shut down by the pandemic.

497
00:24:37.620 --> 00:24:40.950
But we started to see some really interesting results

498
00:24:40.950 --> 00:24:42.530
in the barium.

499
00:24:42.530 --> 00:24:47.180
So we have this bottom section from 1930 to about 1945,

500
00:24:48.390 --> 00:24:50.400
and then there's a break in the record.

501
00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:54.820
And then we pick it up again in 1975 to 2005.

502
00:24:54.820 --> 00:24:56.880
And comparing these two intervals,

503
00:24:56.880 --> 00:25:01.880
there is a mean shift of about two micromolar per mol.

504
00:25:02.090 --> 00:25:06.060
And this is a pretty large shift for this type of record,

505
00:25:06.060 --> 00:25:07.910
especially for means.

506
00:25:07.910 --> 00:25:09.410
The other things we noticed

507
00:25:09.410 --> 00:25:12.700
is that there's this really robust seasonal cycle

508
00:25:12.700 --> 00:25:17.430
that's not expected in a location that's not close to land,

509
00:25:17.430 --> 00:25:19.900
it's not near any large rivers.

510
00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:21.920
It's out in the middle of the Gulf.

511
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:24.170
So we've been really trying to figure out

512
00:25:24.170 --> 00:25:27.210
what's happening with this increase

513
00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:29.920
in barium that happened over time

514
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:32.860
and what's driving the seasonality we're seeing

515
00:25:32.860 --> 00:25:34.363
in this coral record.

516
00:25:35.990 --> 00:25:38.970
So where does barium come from?

517
00:25:38.970 --> 00:25:43.370
So one of the main uses of barium is a mineral called barite

518
00:25:43.370 --> 00:25:45.510
and it's used in drilling muds.

519
00:25:45.510 --> 00:25:48.110
And about 90% of all the barite

520
00:25:48.110 --> 00:25:51.920
that is mined in the US winds up offshore

521
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.013
being used for oil drilling.

522
00:25:54.860 --> 00:25:57.650
And it's thought that barite

523
00:25:57.650 --> 00:26:00.550
would stay dissolved on the sea floor

524
00:26:00.550 --> 00:26:03.730
and just be discarded there.

525
00:26:03.730 --> 00:26:05.830
But we may be seeing evidence

526
00:26:05.830 --> 00:26:08.780
that this barite is not staying on the sea floor,

527
00:26:08.780 --> 00:26:11.790
that it's actually dissolving and changing the chemistry

528
00:26:11.790 --> 00:26:13.450
in the Gulf of Mexico.

529
00:26:13.450 --> 00:26:15.573
And our corals are recording that.

530
00:26:17.310 --> 00:26:19.510
So again, we have lots of oil platforms

531
00:26:19.510 --> 00:26:21.790
out in the Gulf of Mexico.

532
00:26:21.790 --> 00:26:24.930
So this is one that used to be close to Flower Gardens.

533
00:26:24.930 --> 00:26:28.510
I believe it's now been decommissioned and removed.

534
00:26:28.510 --> 00:26:32.380
And this map just shows you all of the oil platforms

535
00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:35.040
in US waters, that's all the blue dots,

536
00:26:35.040 --> 00:26:38.920
and then also in the waters down in Mexico,

537
00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:41.780
the red and green dots.

538
00:26:41.780 --> 00:26:44.960
So we have lots of oil wells and oil exploration

539
00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:46.253
going on in the Gulf.

540
00:26:47.380 --> 00:26:51.220
So if we go back and look at what we see in our coral record

541
00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:55.730
and compare it to the US production of barite

542
00:26:55.730 --> 00:26:58.500
and keep in mind most of this is going offshore

543
00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:00.500
to be used for drilling muds,

544
00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:03.470
we see this nice comparison.

545
00:27:03.470 --> 00:27:05.590
So the earlier part of the 20th century,

546
00:27:05.590 --> 00:27:07.610
that 1930s interval,

547
00:27:07.610 --> 00:27:11.160
we have low amounts of barium in our corals,

548
00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:12.530
and it doesn't correspond

549
00:27:12.530 --> 00:27:16.430
to anything we're seeing with barite production.

550
00:27:16.430 --> 00:27:20.260
But as we start to get oil production in the Gulf of Mexico,

551
00:27:20.260 --> 00:27:24.550
we get this really sharp increase in barite production.

552
00:27:24.550 --> 00:27:26.710
And when we look at our coral record,

553
00:27:26.710 --> 00:27:31.710
the coral is tracking this increase in barium as well.

554
00:27:32.040 --> 00:27:34.120
And then once oil prices drop

555
00:27:34.120 --> 00:27:36.930
and oil production declines in the Gulf,

556
00:27:36.930 --> 00:27:40.360
we see that sharp, that same sharp decrease

557
00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:44.840
in the coral barium calcium, as well.

558
00:27:44.840 --> 00:27:49.280
So we're linking the two of these together,

559
00:27:49.280 --> 00:27:53.340
that we are seeing an increase in our barium in sea water

560
00:27:53.340 --> 00:27:55.077
in the Gulf of Mexico.

561
00:27:55.077 --> 00:27:58.293
And this is being driven by the drilling muds.

562
00:28:00.820 --> 00:28:02.210
And there's just the markers there

563
00:28:02.210 --> 00:28:04.763
to show you how large these differences are.

564
00:28:06.610 --> 00:28:10.860
So coming back to seasonality with the barium.

565
00:28:10.860 --> 00:28:14.570
So the Gulf, we have some different things going on.

566
00:28:14.570 --> 00:28:19.250
In the winter time, we have quite a bit of phytoplankton

567
00:28:19.250 --> 00:28:21.330
that are very active in the winter

568
00:28:21.330 --> 00:28:23.880
and it decreases in the summer.

569
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:27.660
So when we have a lot of phytoplankton in the ocean,

570
00:28:27.660 --> 00:28:31.660
this drives down the nutrient levels in the surface water

571
00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:33.783
and also decreases barium.

572
00:28:34.780 --> 00:28:39.010
So if we look at chlorophyll records from satellites,

573
00:28:39.010 --> 00:28:41.410
for the area around Flower Garden Banks,

574
00:28:41.410 --> 00:28:45.840
and compare that to our coral barium calcium record,

575
00:28:45.840 --> 00:28:50.840
what we see is as we get this increase in chlorophyll,

576
00:28:51.240 --> 00:28:54.070
and I flipped the axis on the chlorophyll graph here.

577
00:28:54.070 --> 00:28:58.620
So going down is more chlorophyll more plankton,

578
00:28:58.620 --> 00:29:00.820
which is drawing down the barium calcium.

579
00:29:00.820 --> 00:29:04.470
So we see that decline in the barium calcium.

580
00:29:04.470 --> 00:29:08.140
So this shows us that our coral record

581
00:29:08.140 --> 00:29:12.570
is also recording what's happening with productivity

582
00:29:12.570 --> 00:29:16.473
in the Gulf of Mexico, as well, as we go back through time.

583
00:29:17.910 --> 00:29:21.810
Now kind of switching gears to a different proxy that

584
00:29:21.810 --> 00:29:23.980
we use, that's the strontium calcium,

585
00:29:23.980 --> 00:29:27.200
where we can reconstruct sea surface temperatures.

586
00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:31.770
So this is that top section of the core from 1930s to 2005,

587
00:29:33.320 --> 00:29:36.160
where we're getting really nice reconstruction

588
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.850
showing the seasonal temperature variability

589
00:29:38.850 --> 00:29:40.750
in the Gulf of Mexico,

590
00:29:40.750 --> 00:29:45.550
and also what that variability looks like.

591
00:29:45.550 --> 00:29:48.810
And I'm gonna come back to this record in just a minute.

592
00:29:48.810 --> 00:29:53.750
I also wanted to mention, we're working on right now,

593
00:29:53.750 --> 00:29:56.890
extending this record from 1930

594
00:29:56.890 --> 00:30:01.104
all the way back into the 1700s.

595
00:30:01.104 --> 00:30:03.521
(indistinct)

596
00:30:09.790 --> 00:30:11.340
Lovely picture there,

597
00:30:11.340 --> 00:30:14.320
where we're putting all of this information together.

598
00:30:14.320 --> 00:30:16.730
And in the next year, she's gonna have a really fabulous

599
00:30:16.730 --> 00:30:19.010
temperature reconstruction for Flower Garden Banks

600
00:30:19.010 --> 00:30:20.090
completed.

601
00:30:20.090 --> 00:30:21.940
And one of the things I can highlight

602
00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:24.010
in this reconstruction so far

603
00:30:24.010 --> 00:30:26.660
is we're seeing this decline in temperatures

604
00:30:26.660 --> 00:30:28.790
as we move back in time.

605
00:30:28.790 --> 00:30:32.500
And this interval here in the 1800s has a special name

606
00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:34.460
and that's the little ice age.

607
00:30:34.460 --> 00:30:36.970
And this is where we see in the Northern hemisphere

608
00:30:36.970 --> 00:30:40.050
and in Europe, this decline in temperatures.

609
00:30:40.050 --> 00:30:41.760
It's not necessarily global,

610
00:30:41.760 --> 00:30:43.570
it's more of a Northern hemisphere,

611
00:30:43.570 --> 00:30:46.200
European centric decline in temperatures.

612
00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:49.963
But we are seeing that in Flower Garden Banks as well.

613
00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:53.760
Now, just as a comparison,

614
00:30:53.760 --> 00:30:56.790
this is the reconstruction that I did at the USGS

615
00:30:56.790 --> 00:30:58.330
for Dry Tortugas.

616
00:30:58.330 --> 00:31:01.640
And this reconstruction uses that same temperature proxy,

617
00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:05.750
strontium calcium, and goes back to the 1730s.

618
00:31:05.750 --> 00:31:07.900
So the coral reconstruction is in black.

619
00:31:07.900 --> 00:31:12.420
In the blue is the instrumental air record from Key West.

620
00:31:12.420 --> 00:31:14.820
And you can see that there's a nice correspondence

621
00:31:14.820 --> 00:31:18.950
between the coral record and the air temperature record.

622
00:31:18.950 --> 00:31:22.410
And the dashed line here is showing that average temperature

623
00:31:22.410 --> 00:31:25.340
for the last 30 years of the 20th century.

624
00:31:25.340 --> 00:31:26.490
And looking at this,

625
00:31:26.490 --> 00:31:29.050
we can see that in the Florida,

626
00:31:29.050 --> 00:31:31.400
the westernmost Florida Keys

627
00:31:31.400 --> 00:31:33.370
as we move back to the little ice age,

628
00:31:33.370 --> 00:31:36.650
we do see temperatures dropping and becoming colder.

629
00:31:36.650 --> 00:31:39.640
So almost one degree colder on average.

630
00:31:39.640 --> 00:31:44.210
But we do have intervals where it is in the 1700s

631
00:31:44.210 --> 00:31:47.310
almost as warm as the late 20th century.

632
00:31:47.310 --> 00:31:49.990
And we have quite a bit of interannual variability

633
00:31:49.990 --> 00:31:54.800
and multidecadal variability in this record as well.

634
00:31:54.800 --> 00:31:58.050
So now let's take the Dry Tortugas record

635
00:31:58.050 --> 00:32:02.330
and plot that with what we have from Flower Garden Banks

636
00:32:02.330 --> 00:32:03.163
thus far.

637
00:32:03.163 --> 00:32:06.253
So that 1930s interval to 2005.

638
00:32:07.337 --> 00:32:11.310
And Flower Gardens is in red and Dry Tortugas is in blue.

639
00:32:11.310 --> 00:32:13.530
and Dry Tortugas is further south

640
00:32:13.530 --> 00:32:15.200
so we expect it to be warmer.

641
00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:17.380
And that's what we see in this record

642
00:32:17.380 --> 00:32:21.160
and Flower Garden Banks in red tends to be colder.

643
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:24.600
We also see that Flower Gardens has a bigger seasonal cycle,

644
00:32:24.600 --> 00:32:27.183
which we expect because it's further north.

645
00:32:28.090 --> 00:32:30.840
The bold lines that I've plotted here,

646
00:32:30.840 --> 00:32:34.070
these are the smooth lines that tells us what's happening

647
00:32:34.070 --> 00:32:36.530
with interannual variability.

648
00:32:36.530 --> 00:32:39.970
So we see a little mean shift between the locations

649
00:32:39.970 --> 00:32:40.803
which we expect,

650
00:32:40.803 --> 00:32:44.150
and it's pretty constant as we go back in time.

651
00:32:44.150 --> 00:32:47.770
They seem to be doing quite similar variability

652
00:32:47.770 --> 00:32:50.627
till we get back to this interval right here

653
00:32:50.627 --> 00:32:53.950
in the 1930s going into the 1940s

654
00:32:53.950 --> 00:32:58.890
where Flower Gardens has these really cold temperatures

655
00:32:58.890 --> 00:33:02.290
compared to what we see at Dry Tortugas.

656
00:33:02.290 --> 00:33:04.160
And this period is interesting

657
00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.560
because this is the dust bowl interval,

658
00:33:07.560 --> 00:33:09.810
where the Midwest of the United States

659
00:33:09.810 --> 00:33:12.650
goes through a very dry period.

660
00:33:12.650 --> 00:33:16.350
And how this connects back to the Gulf of Mexico

661
00:33:16.350 --> 00:33:19.840
is that the Gulf is one of our primary moisture sources

662
00:33:19.840 --> 00:33:23.800
for precipitation in the midwest of our country.

663
00:33:23.800 --> 00:33:27.800
So if the Gulf of Mexico is colder,

664
00:33:27.800 --> 00:33:31.630
that means less evaporation and less moisture

665
00:33:31.630 --> 00:33:34.930
going over land for precipitation.

666
00:33:34.930 --> 00:33:37.780
So by pulling these types of records together,

667
00:33:37.780 --> 00:33:39.180
we can start to go back

668
00:33:39.180 --> 00:33:41.790
and look at how these changes in the past

669
00:33:41.790 --> 00:33:44.323
have influenced our weather here on land.

670
00:33:47.170 --> 00:33:50.890
So just to show you that same section of the coral record,

671
00:33:50.890 --> 00:33:53.400
we also have our oxygen isotope data.

672
00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:54.650
Again, this is new data

673
00:33:54.650 --> 00:33:57.450
we're just getting back from the lab,

674
00:33:57.450 --> 00:34:02.040
where we'll be looking at salinity reconstructions.

675
00:34:02.040 --> 00:34:05.970
So our oxygen isotopes also vary with temperature,

676
00:34:05.970 --> 00:34:08.040
and we see that same variability

677
00:34:08.040 --> 00:34:09.970
as our strontium calcium record.

678
00:34:09.970 --> 00:34:11.590
But what's interesting

679
00:34:11.590 --> 00:34:14.990
is as we pull these two records together,

680
00:34:14.990 --> 00:34:17.760
we're seeing some interannual and decadal variability

681
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:19.480
in the records, as well.

682
00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:22.490
And this is work that I'm doing with Amy Wagner

683
00:34:22.490 --> 00:34:26.370
over at Sacramento State on this project.

684
00:34:26.370 --> 00:34:28.608
So this will be,

685
00:34:28.608 --> 00:34:31.403
hopefully a project will finish up here this next year.

686
00:34:33.240 --> 00:34:35.680
Now we kind of switch gears a little

687
00:34:35.680 --> 00:34:38.260
and we're gonna go back a little further in time

688
00:34:38.260 --> 00:34:41.280
to a period called the medieval climactic optimum.

689
00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:44.350
So this was just before the little ice age.

690
00:34:44.350 --> 00:34:46.800
And you may know this period from history,

691
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:49.400
'cause this is when the Vikings go and settle

692
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:51.610
Greenland and Iceland.

693
00:34:51.610 --> 00:34:53.630
And Europe goes through this period

694
00:34:53.630 --> 00:34:57.320
where the temperatures and the climate are milder

695
00:34:57.320 --> 00:35:00.790
and we start to have really good harvest and plenty of food.

696
00:35:00.790 --> 00:35:02.820
They're growing grapes in England.

697
00:35:02.820 --> 00:35:04.350
The winters are less severe,

698
00:35:04.350 --> 00:35:08.540
so this is just this really nice period of time.

699
00:35:08.540 --> 00:35:10.140
And we're interested to know,

700
00:35:10.140 --> 00:35:12.420
okay, so that's what's happening in Europe.

701
00:35:12.420 --> 00:35:17.360
What's happening in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico?

702
00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:20.500
So looking back at our ice core data,

703
00:35:20.500 --> 00:35:23.030
we can look at the medieval warm period,

704
00:35:23.030 --> 00:35:26.017
which is about one to three degrees warmer than today

705
00:35:26.017 --> 00:35:28.420
and we can compare that to the little ice stage

706
00:35:28.420 --> 00:35:29.840
we just looked at

707
00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:33.510
that is one to three degrees cooler than today.

708
00:35:33.510 --> 00:35:37.380
So for this work, we're gonna go to the Cayman Islands.

709
00:35:37.380 --> 00:35:41.597
And this is where we've been working since 2016

710
00:35:43.150 --> 00:35:45.943
going and collecting all of these boulder corals

711
00:35:45.943 --> 00:35:49.780
that get washed up on the beach by hurricanes.

712
00:35:49.780 --> 00:35:51.010
And these boulders,

713
00:35:51.010 --> 00:35:54.850
we can go in and date them using our uranium-thorium dating,

714
00:35:54.850 --> 00:35:58.047
and start to understand what's been happening

715
00:35:58.047 --> 00:36:03.047
in the Caribbean over the last 6,000 years or the Holocene.

716
00:36:04.170 --> 00:36:07.030
So we'll be looking at strontium calcium with these corals,

717
00:36:07.030 --> 00:36:10.250
we'll also be looking at our barium calcium,

718
00:36:10.250 --> 00:36:13.680
which in this location tells us about upwelling

719
00:36:13.680 --> 00:36:16.040
on the north side of the island.

720
00:36:16.040 --> 00:36:19.550
Another project I'm doing with these corals as well

721
00:36:19.550 --> 00:36:20.980
is as we start dating them,

722
00:36:20.980 --> 00:36:23.740
we're seeing we're getting clusters of corals

723
00:36:23.740 --> 00:36:25.420
at particular time intervals.

724
00:36:25.420 --> 00:36:28.230
So you'll notice I've got two here already dated

725
00:36:28.230 --> 00:36:32.670
to about 5,500 years ago.

726
00:36:32.670 --> 00:36:34.860
So this is storm wash.

727
00:36:34.860 --> 00:36:37.730
So we're also gonna be looking at hurricanes

728
00:36:37.730 --> 00:36:39.240
and that's what this map is showing here

729
00:36:39.240 --> 00:36:42.600
is all the hurricane tracks that went through the Caymans,

730
00:36:42.600 --> 00:36:43.650
to try to understand

731
00:36:43.650 --> 00:36:46.760
what's happening with hurricane frequencies as well.

732
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:51.000
And 5,000 years ago, this is a really interesting interval

733
00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:53.930
where we have less El Nino events

734
00:36:53.930 --> 00:36:56.530
occurring in the Pacific ocean,

735
00:36:56.530 --> 00:37:01.320
which means we have more hurricanes in the Atlantic ocean.

736
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:06.240
So so far we're seeing lots of these mid Holocene corals

737
00:37:06.240 --> 00:37:07.327
washing up.

738
00:37:07.327 --> 00:37:10.840
But we'll be continuing that in the next couple of years.

739
00:37:10.840 --> 00:37:15.170
So this is some of the data that we've been able to produce.

740
00:37:15.170 --> 00:37:19.380
One of our undergrads at LSU, Kendall, worked on this.

741
00:37:19.380 --> 00:37:22.800
So this is a coral from that Medieval Climactic Optimum.

742
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:26.490
So it's dated to about 1300 years ago.

743
00:37:26.490 --> 00:37:28.060
And what we see

744
00:37:28.060 --> 00:37:31.700
is slightly cooler temperatures there than today,

745
00:37:31.700 --> 00:37:33.320
but it's quite variable.

746
00:37:33.320 --> 00:37:37.310
So it's cooler, but the temperatures swing quite a bit.

747
00:37:37.310 --> 00:37:38.920
And we're also seeing evidence

748
00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:40.940
of these really strong wind events

749
00:37:40.940 --> 00:37:44.220
that produce upwelling offshore as well.

750
00:37:44.220 --> 00:37:46.050
And this is work we'll be continuing

751
00:37:46.050 --> 00:37:47.693
in the next couple of years.

752
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:51.710
So now we're gonna go back a little further in time

753
00:37:51.710 --> 00:37:53.850
to the last interglacial.

754
00:37:53.850 --> 00:37:57.080
So here's that marker in the ice core record.

755
00:37:57.080 --> 00:38:00.240
So 125,000 years ago.

756
00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:03.847
And we're interested in this particular interval,

757
00:38:03.847 --> 00:38:06.890
'cause it was the last time the earth was as warm

758
00:38:06.890 --> 00:38:08.240
as it is today.

759
00:38:08.240 --> 00:38:12.310
It's the last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

760
00:38:12.310 --> 00:38:16.950
was stronger than 280 parts per million.

761
00:38:16.950 --> 00:38:20.390
The other thing is sea levels were higher than this interval

762
00:38:20.390 --> 00:38:24.360
so by six to nine meters, like 20 feet higher than today.

763
00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:28.190
And that's because more of Greenland and west Antarctica

764
00:38:28.190 --> 00:38:32.140
melted. And keep in mind at this time interval,

765
00:38:32.140 --> 00:38:35.170
there's no humans impacting the climate.

766
00:38:35.170 --> 00:38:37.560
This is natural climate variability

767
00:38:37.560 --> 00:38:40.383
where sea levels got higher all on their own.

768
00:38:41.640 --> 00:38:44.300
So we're also interested in looking at what's happening

769
00:38:44.300 --> 00:38:45.133
seasonally.

770
00:38:45.133 --> 00:38:47.570
We get this really strong seasonal contrast

771
00:38:47.570 --> 00:38:48.660
during this interval

772
00:38:48.660 --> 00:38:50.720
and this is what's expected to happen

773
00:38:50.720 --> 00:38:53.800
with global warming into the near future.

774
00:38:53.800 --> 00:38:55.610
So to look at this interval,

775
00:38:55.610 --> 00:38:57.690
we need to find records

776
00:38:57.690 --> 00:39:00.620
that have that annual seasonal resolution

777
00:39:00.620 --> 00:39:04.330
and they're quite rare when we go back this far in time.

778
00:39:04.330 --> 00:39:07.180
But with corals, we can do it.

779
00:39:07.180 --> 00:39:09.470
So here I'm gonna show you two records

780
00:39:09.470 --> 00:39:13.770
from the north coast of Hispaniola, or Dominican Republic,

781
00:39:13.770 --> 00:39:15.140
and Haiti.

782
00:39:15.140 --> 00:39:19.432
So the first coral I'm showing you, this is the fossil

783
00:39:19.432 --> 00:39:24.038
coral, it's been dated to 128,000 years ago

784
00:39:24.038 --> 00:39:26.621
and it spans 75 years.

785
00:39:26.621 --> 00:39:29.538
And we're gonna compare that to our modern coral

786
00:39:29.538 --> 00:39:32.380
from that uplifted coral from Haiti.

787
00:39:32.380 --> 00:39:35.430
And these corals span about 84 years.

788
00:39:35.430 --> 00:39:36.920
So by comparing these two,

789
00:39:36.920 --> 00:39:39.040
we can understand what was happening

790
00:39:39.040 --> 00:39:44.040
when the earth was as warm as it is today in the past.

791
00:39:44.350 --> 00:39:48.320
So looking at this last interglacial coral,

792
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:50.610
we see some interesting things.

793
00:39:50.610 --> 00:39:53.960
So we have an average temperature here in blue,

794
00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:56.635
at 27.5 degrees, and it varies by

795
00:39:56.635 --> 00:40:01.010
about 1.6 degrees on a year to year basis.

796
00:40:02.240 --> 00:40:06.490
We also have some really strong inner annual variability,

797
00:40:06.490 --> 00:40:08.460
so about three degrees Celsius,

798
00:40:08.460 --> 00:40:11.700
and strong decadal scale variability

799
00:40:11.700 --> 00:40:16.530
of about two and a half or 2.8 degrees Celsius.

800
00:40:16.530 --> 00:40:19.080
So this may not mean much to you

801
00:40:19.080 --> 00:40:21.870
till we compare it to the modern record.

802
00:40:21.870 --> 00:40:23.290
So there in Haiti.

803
00:40:23.290 --> 00:40:26.580
So the top plot here is the Haiti modern.

804
00:40:26.580 --> 00:40:29.210
The bottom is the last interglacial coral.

805
00:40:29.210 --> 00:40:34.210
And these are scaled to the same temperature for both plots.

806
00:40:34.400 --> 00:40:36.290
So one of the things you'll notice

807
00:40:36.290 --> 00:40:40.390
is that our average temperatures are pretty much the same

808
00:40:40.390 --> 00:40:43.580
for the modern and the last interglacial.

809
00:40:43.580 --> 00:40:46.230
The difference is in the variability.

810
00:40:46.230 --> 00:40:49.830
The modern corals have less variability

811
00:40:49.830 --> 00:40:53.830
and our last interglacial has this really strong,

812
00:40:53.830 --> 00:40:58.410
seasonal plus interannual and decadal variability.

813
00:40:58.410 --> 00:41:02.600
So this suggests that as temperatures rise,

814
00:41:02.600 --> 00:41:04.660
as sea levels go up,

815
00:41:04.660 --> 00:41:07.340
and that seasonal cycle becomes stronger,

816
00:41:07.340 --> 00:41:09.440
we may also see this increase

817
00:41:09.440 --> 00:41:11.840
in interannual and decadal variability

818
00:41:11.840 --> 00:41:13.283
in the Caribbean region.

819
00:41:14.540 --> 00:41:16.140
We can take these results

820
00:41:16.140 --> 00:41:18.870
and compare them with climate models.

821
00:41:18.870 --> 00:41:22.420
And we're gonna to do this with some different simulations

822
00:41:22.420 --> 00:41:24.930
called CCSM3.

823
00:41:24.930 --> 00:41:26.870
And we're gonna look at, oops, sorry.

824
00:41:26.870 --> 00:41:29.750
The last interglacial interval,

825
00:41:29.750 --> 00:41:32.973
we have a control that's the last 270 years

826
00:41:32.973 --> 00:41:35.250
with no greenhouse gases.

827
00:41:35.250 --> 00:41:37.360
We have the 20th century

828
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.490
and then two sea surface temperature records.

829
00:41:40.490 --> 00:41:42.990
And these maps are correlation maps

830
00:41:42.990 --> 00:41:44.340
that are showing

831
00:41:44.340 --> 00:41:47.940
for our location there in Haiti, Dominican Republic

832
00:41:47.940 --> 00:41:51.800
have this temperature representative for the larger region.

833
00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:55.680
And we see that in each of these scenarios,

834
00:41:55.680 --> 00:41:59.020
our particular site is good at recording

835
00:41:59.020 --> 00:42:02.330
what's happening in the Caribbean in general,

836
00:42:02.330 --> 00:42:04.090
down into the Florida keys,

837
00:42:04.090 --> 00:42:06.890
but not really going into Flower Garden Banks.

838
00:42:06.890 --> 00:42:08.540
So the Northern Gulf of Mexico

839
00:42:08.540 --> 00:42:10.940
is doing something different than the Caribbean.

840
00:42:12.240 --> 00:42:14.080
Now when we start teasing

841
00:42:14.080 --> 00:42:16.340
what's happening with the climate models

842
00:42:16.340 --> 00:42:17.550
with our coral record,

843
00:42:17.550 --> 00:42:20.490
we start to see some interesting things.

844
00:42:20.490 --> 00:42:23.790
So here, we're just looking at the seasonal cycle,

845
00:42:23.790 --> 00:42:26.450
and our model simulations,

846
00:42:26.450 --> 00:42:30.630
which are shown here in the purple and red.

847
00:42:30.630 --> 00:42:34.040
When we compare that to the temperature reconstructions

848
00:42:34.040 --> 00:42:38.270
that are also modern, there is a cold biased here.

849
00:42:38.270 --> 00:42:41.270
If we look at what's happening with the last interglacial,

850
00:42:41.270 --> 00:42:46.270
that is the black line, we see that it's also colder

851
00:42:47.020 --> 00:42:48.900
than our modern temperature records,

852
00:42:48.900 --> 00:42:51.360
but it has this greater seasonality,

853
00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:53.953
which we expect for this time interval.

854
00:42:55.700 --> 00:43:00.210
So if we look at the seasonal cycle for the model,

855
00:43:00.210 --> 00:43:03.270
it's about 3.7 degrees Celsius.

856
00:43:03.270 --> 00:43:06.490
Now, if we bring in our coral reconstruction,

857
00:43:06.490 --> 00:43:09.900
we see that same seasonal cycle,

858
00:43:09.900 --> 00:43:14.330
but the difference here is the corals are warmer

859
00:43:14.330 --> 00:43:15.840
than the models.

860
00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:17.810
And they're tracking what's happening

861
00:43:17.810 --> 00:43:21.690
with the temperature observations as well.

862
00:43:21.690 --> 00:43:25.320
So the models are getting the seasonal cycles right,

863
00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:29.640
but there's a cold bias in the climate models.

864
00:43:29.640 --> 00:43:34.140
And this is something that is known for the Caribbean region

865
00:43:34.140 --> 00:43:35.450
in particular.

866
00:43:35.450 --> 00:43:37.890
So it's not for all locations on the earth.

867
00:43:37.890 --> 00:43:41.830
This is a Caribbean intra America sea's problem

868
00:43:41.830 --> 00:43:43.930
in the climate models.

869
00:43:43.930 --> 00:43:45.630
And the reason why

870
00:43:45.630 --> 00:43:49.610
figuring out what's going on with this bias is important

871
00:43:49.610 --> 00:43:53.180
is because we start to think about absolute temperatures

872
00:43:53.180 --> 00:43:56.710
like the threshold for hurricane formation,

873
00:43:56.710 --> 00:43:59.950
which is 26.5 degrees Celsius.

874
00:43:59.950 --> 00:44:02.980
So if we're looking at the models,

875
00:44:02.980 --> 00:44:06.610
they're not quite getting into this warm range.

876
00:44:06.610 --> 00:44:09.020
Whereas when we look at what's happening

877
00:44:09.020 --> 00:44:10.160
in the last interglacial

878
00:44:10.160 --> 00:44:12.320
of our sea surface temperature records,

879
00:44:12.320 --> 00:44:15.750
we're above this threshold for hurricane formation

880
00:44:15.750 --> 00:44:18.960
for a good number of months of the year

881
00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:21.860
where the models don't quite capture that.

882
00:44:21.860 --> 00:44:24.370
So that's important to think about.

883
00:44:24.370 --> 00:44:26.180
The other thing is when we start to think about

884
00:44:26.180 --> 00:44:27.870
corals and coral bleaching,

885
00:44:27.870 --> 00:44:30.780
two degrees change is a big deal

886
00:44:30.780 --> 00:44:32.880
when looking at coral bleaching.

887
00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:35.370
So figuring out what's happening with these models

888
00:44:35.370 --> 00:44:37.650
in the Caribbean is an important part

889
00:44:37.650 --> 00:44:40.763
of what researchers and my research team is looking at.

890
00:44:41.850 --> 00:44:44.010
So kind of just to wrap together

891
00:44:44.010 --> 00:44:46.370
everything that I've shown you here,

892
00:44:46.370 --> 00:44:48.210
so a big part of what we're doing

893
00:44:48.210 --> 00:44:51.590
is looking at these Anthropocene geological markers

894
00:44:51.590 --> 00:44:56.550
using Flower Garden Banks as the candidate location.

895
00:44:56.550 --> 00:45:00.500
We'll be submitting the papers this summer.

896
00:45:00.500 --> 00:45:04.620
The proposals will go to the International

897
00:45:04.620 --> 00:45:06.600
Stratographic Committee.

898
00:45:06.600 --> 00:45:09.230
They will evaluate the proposals

899
00:45:09.230 --> 00:45:14.230
and they will decide which slide will become

900
00:45:14.340 --> 00:45:17.603
the ultimate stratographic marker for the Anthropocene.

901
00:45:21.033 --> 00:45:23.730
And I'm hoping that our work at Flower Garden Banks

902
00:45:23.730 --> 00:45:27.550
will show that this is a really good location

903
00:45:27.550 --> 00:45:31.250
to have the geological marker for the Anthropocene.

904
00:45:31.250 --> 00:45:33.170
We're also gonna continue building on

905
00:45:33.170 --> 00:45:35.570
with all of our coral reconstructions.

906
00:45:35.570 --> 00:45:37.730
So it's very much still a work in progress,

907
00:45:37.730 --> 00:45:39.960
but we're excited about what's happening

908
00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:42.300
and we'll have more results

909
00:45:42.300 --> 00:45:43.960
coming out in the next couple of years.

910
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:47.020
I've got new students coming to LSU in the fall

911
00:45:47.020 --> 00:45:48.430
and students continuing on.

912
00:45:48.430 --> 00:45:50.100
So there's much more to come.

913
00:45:50.100 --> 00:45:51.503
And I'll end there.

914
00:45:55.860 --> 00:45:56.693
<v Kelly>Wow Kristine,</v>

915
00:45:56.693 --> 00:45:59.620
that's just some great information there.

916
00:45:59.620 --> 00:46:00.923
At this point,

917
00:46:02.490 --> 00:46:04.070
I don't even know how to address that.

918
00:46:04.070 --> 00:46:06.720
There's just so much information there, so many new things

919
00:46:06.720 --> 00:46:08.140
that even for us and the staff

920
00:46:08.140 --> 00:46:09.790
we've been like kind of chatting in the background

921
00:46:09.790 --> 00:46:11.040
saying, "Wow, that's really cool.

922
00:46:11.040 --> 00:46:14.350
I wonder what that means for the future of our coral reef,"

923
00:46:14.350 --> 00:46:15.183
and so forth.

924
00:46:16.330 --> 00:46:19.600
At this point, we have about 10 minutes

925
00:46:19.600 --> 00:46:21.053
left for question and answer.

926
00:46:22.010 --> 00:46:23.650
If you have a questions for our presenter

927
00:46:23.650 --> 00:46:25.700
you can type them into the question box

928
00:46:25.700 --> 00:46:27.560
in the GoToWebinar control panel

929
00:46:27.560 --> 00:46:30.050
on the right hand side of your screen.

930
00:46:30.050 --> 00:46:31.670
If you've just clicked the question mark

931
00:46:31.670 --> 00:46:34.250
in your attendance box, we're not gonna unmute anybody.

932
00:46:34.250 --> 00:46:36.180
So all questions need to go into that,

933
00:46:36.180 --> 00:46:38.820
type them into the question box please.

934
00:46:38.820 --> 00:46:40.050
Leslie and I will sort through them

935
00:46:40.050 --> 00:46:42.560
and feed them back to Kristine.

936
00:46:42.560 --> 00:46:44.520
And because we only have 10 minutes left,

937
00:46:44.520 --> 00:46:47.190
Kristine has kindly agreed to stay on a little bit longer

938
00:46:47.190 --> 00:46:50.210
with us, maybe an extra 10 or 15 minutes past 7:30

939
00:46:50.210 --> 00:46:51.720
to continue answering questions

940
00:46:51.720 --> 00:46:55.600
if there are enough in there that we need to address that.

941
00:46:55.600 --> 00:46:57.840
But, we will still wrap up at 7:30.

942
00:46:57.840 --> 00:46:59.880
For those of you who have a hard stop at 7:30,

943
00:46:59.880 --> 00:47:02.700
we will do a little wrap up at 7:30.

944
00:47:02.700 --> 00:47:05.100
And then for those of you who want to stay on with us,

945
00:47:05.100 --> 00:47:07.370
you can do that and we will continue on

946
00:47:07.370 --> 00:47:10.710
with a little bit more of a question and answer period.

947
00:47:10.710 --> 00:47:13.830
So let's see what we've got for you, Kristine.

948
00:47:13.830 --> 00:47:14.820
<v ->Okay.</v>

949
00:47:14.820 --> 00:47:16.270
<v Kelly>The first question.</v>

950
00:47:17.640 --> 00:47:19.340
When you take a core out of a coral,

951
00:47:19.340 --> 00:47:21.473
how badly does that damage the coral?

952
00:47:23.200 --> 00:47:25.280
<v ->Good question.</v>

953
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:30.090
And it's one I actually have people ask me that quite a bit

954
00:47:30.090 --> 00:47:32.113
and I have a little slide prepared.

955
00:47:33.140 --> 00:47:37.600
So this is one of the corals that we cored in Dry Tortugas.

956
00:47:37.600 --> 00:47:40.890
And you can see there's a little patch in the top of it.

957
00:47:40.890 --> 00:47:44.750
So we put a plug in it and we glue that plug in

958
00:47:44.750 --> 00:47:47.920
and that's to protect the coral

959
00:47:47.920 --> 00:47:49.810
so that it doesn't get little bio-eroders

960
00:47:49.810 --> 00:47:52.730
going down into the hole.

961
00:47:52.730 --> 00:47:54.760
What will happen through time

962
00:47:54.760 --> 00:47:58.170
is the coral will actually grow up over that hole.

963
00:47:58.170 --> 00:47:59.940
So if you've ever been out diving

964
00:47:59.940 --> 00:48:03.030
and you've seen little Christmas tree worms in the corals,

965
00:48:03.030 --> 00:48:05.100
so they also bore into the coral

966
00:48:05.100 --> 00:48:07.760
and the coral over time will grow over those

967
00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:08.920
and seal them off.

968
00:48:08.920 --> 00:48:11.480
And with some of our really long coral cores,

969
00:48:11.480 --> 00:48:13.330
we see all these little Christmas tree tubes

970
00:48:13.330 --> 00:48:14.630
that have been grown over.

971
00:48:15.540 --> 00:48:18.670
Same thing happens with the corals after we core them.

972
00:48:18.670 --> 00:48:20.230
So this bottom picture,

973
00:48:20.230 --> 00:48:25.230
this is from Puerto Rico and my lab-mate in grad school,

974
00:48:25.380 --> 00:48:30.380
Hallie Kilborn, she cored this in 2004.

975
00:48:30.420 --> 00:48:33.150
And when they started going down on this particular coral,

976
00:48:33.150 --> 00:48:35.720
and it was a nice big one off the south coast

977
00:48:35.720 --> 00:48:40.610
of Puerto Rico, when they got down about six, seven inches,

978
00:48:40.610 --> 00:48:45.030
they noticed there was this little concave part of the core.

979
00:48:45.030 --> 00:48:49.060
And what happened was they had actually went back to a coral

980
00:48:49.060 --> 00:48:51.900
that Amos Winter drilled in 1992,

981
00:48:51.900 --> 00:48:56.120
and almost hit the exact same spot that he had drilled.

982
00:48:56.120 --> 00:48:57.960
And back in '92,

983
00:48:57.960 --> 00:49:01.310
we don't think he sealed this particular coral,

984
00:49:01.310 --> 00:49:04.330
we didn't see any evidence of a plug in it.

985
00:49:04.330 --> 00:49:05.710
Oops, sorry.

986
00:49:05.710 --> 00:49:09.330
But you can see the coral did grow back over that hole.

987
00:49:09.330 --> 00:49:11.870
And when Hallie was coring this core,

988
00:49:11.870 --> 00:49:13.910
they couldn't even tell from the surface

989
00:49:13.910 --> 00:49:15.790
that it had been cored before.

990
00:49:15.790 --> 00:49:20.100
So a nice healthy coral will grow over the hole

991
00:49:20.100 --> 00:49:24.653
and recover its where you can't see it in the future.

992
00:49:25.900 --> 00:49:30.080
So again, (indistinct) we wanna be really careful

993
00:49:30.080 --> 00:49:33.900
when we're (indistinct) as much as possible.

994
00:49:33.900 --> 00:49:34.800
But good question.

995
00:49:37.550 --> 00:49:38.383
<v Kelly>Great.</v>

996
00:49:38.383 --> 00:49:39.720
And actually that's a Flower Garden's picture

997
00:49:39.720 --> 00:49:41.370
up there in the top right corner.

998
00:49:43.040 --> 00:49:44.472
<v ->Yes it is.</v>

999
00:49:44.472 --> 00:49:46.320
(Kelly laughs)

1000
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:48.350
<v Kelly>Do you think the cycle going colder</v>

1001
00:49:48.350 --> 00:49:51.943
versus today, the cycle warming is why there is a cold bias?

1002
00:49:55.230 --> 00:50:00.230
<v ->So here, so there's just something inherent in the models.</v>

1003
00:50:01.580 --> 00:50:04.360
So again, with climate models,

1004
00:50:04.360 --> 00:50:07.030
they're dealing with grid cells

1005
00:50:07.030 --> 00:50:11.210
and those grid cells can be hundreds of kilometers,

1006
00:50:11.210 --> 00:50:13.580
hundreds of miles wide.

1007
00:50:13.580 --> 00:50:15.637
So when you get into a place like the Caribbean

1008
00:50:15.637 --> 00:50:19.833
and the Gulf of Mexico, places like Florida,

1009
00:50:22.143 --> 00:50:24.350
you can have Florida in the middle of the grid cell

1010
00:50:24.350 --> 00:50:26.580
and it's averaging everything on the west coast

1011
00:50:26.580 --> 00:50:27.910
and the east coast of Florida.

1012
00:50:27.910 --> 00:50:31.010
Same thing when you get down into Cuba and all the islands.

1013
00:50:31.010 --> 00:50:33.536
So you get the Caribbean is being mixed in

1014
00:50:33.536 --> 00:50:37.180
with the Atlantic ocean on the north side of the islands.

1015
00:50:37.180 --> 00:50:41.230
They just don't quite have that resolution

1016
00:50:41.230 --> 00:50:46.220
to get at what's happening at these smaller scales.

1017
00:50:46.220 --> 00:50:51.220
So that's pretty much, for areas like the Caribbean

1018
00:50:52.140 --> 00:50:54.440
and the Gulf, is an issue.

1019
00:50:54.440 --> 00:50:55.960
And a lot of climate models

1020
00:50:55.960 --> 00:51:00.240
when you like start looking at the results, oh, sorry,

1021
00:51:00.240 --> 00:51:02.120
they'll just kind of blank out the Caribbean

1022
00:51:02.120 --> 00:51:04.690
and the Gulf of Mexico and just not show any results

1023
00:51:04.690 --> 00:51:07.340
for that region 'cause they know it's a problem area.

1024
00:51:08.280 --> 00:51:11.790
But I think as the models get better,

1025
00:51:11.790 --> 00:51:14.400
they have finer resolution,

1026
00:51:14.400 --> 00:51:17.690
they start to bring in more coastal processes,

1027
00:51:17.690 --> 00:51:20.500
understanding what's happening with ocean currents

1028
00:51:20.500 --> 00:51:23.480
in the Caribbean and bringing that into the model,

1029
00:51:23.480 --> 00:51:26.680
I think these things will start to be resolved.

1030
00:51:26.680 --> 00:51:29.700
And we're starting to see some evidence of that

1031
00:51:29.700 --> 00:51:31.520
happening already.

1032
00:51:31.520 --> 00:51:33.567
But there's lots of climate models out there,

1033
00:51:33.567 --> 00:51:36.430
you know, different institutions

1034
00:51:36.430 --> 00:51:38.060
all over the world and universities

1035
00:51:38.060 --> 00:51:39.290
have their climate models.

1036
00:51:39.290 --> 00:51:42.400
I think there's like 27 plus now

1037
00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:47.400
that do these types of simulations for the IPCC reports.

1038
00:51:49.020 --> 00:51:50.550
So they're getting better,

1039
00:51:50.550 --> 00:51:52.520
but we're getting into like diagnosing

1040
00:51:52.520 --> 00:51:54.380
all these little tiny problems

1041
00:51:54.380 --> 00:51:57.870
and like those of us working in the Caribbean,

1042
00:51:57.870 --> 00:51:59.630
we're sitting there going, hey, climate modelers,

1043
00:51:59.630 --> 00:52:02.740
pay attention to us because something weird is going on here

1044
00:52:02.740 --> 00:52:04.440
and you need to look at it.

1045
00:52:04.440 --> 00:52:08.090
And next week I'm actually gonna be doing a seminar

1046
00:52:09.210 --> 00:52:14.040
with the INCAR Center, looking at paleo-climate records.

1047
00:52:14.040 --> 00:52:15.630
So we'll be doing that all next week

1048
00:52:15.630 --> 00:52:18.040
and seeing some of the latest information

1049
00:52:18.040 --> 00:52:20.040
coming out of the climate models.

1050
00:52:20.040 --> 00:52:22.440
But they are starting to focus on

1051
00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:25.480
what's happening on these smaller scales

1052
00:52:25.480 --> 00:52:27.653
in the intra-America seas region.

1053
00:52:31.290 --> 00:52:32.290
<v Kelly>Thank you.</v>

1054
00:52:33.310 --> 00:52:35.520
Next question has to do with the healing curve

1055
00:52:35.520 --> 00:52:36.540
from Mauna Loa.

1056
00:52:36.540 --> 00:52:39.100
It says it shows carbon dioxide level increasing

1057
00:52:39.100 --> 00:52:41.190
and your graph showed the seasonal fluctuations,

1058
00:52:41.190 --> 00:52:43.310
but the overall graph went down.

1059
00:52:43.310 --> 00:52:46.840
Was your graph showing something other than carbon dioxide?

1060
00:52:46.840 --> 00:52:47.707
<v ->Yes, it was.</v>

1061
00:52:47.707 --> 00:52:50.860
It's showing carbon isotopes.

1062
00:52:50.860 --> 00:52:51.693
So yeah.

1063
00:52:51.693 --> 00:52:55.270
So this is again, it's easy to get that confused

1064
00:52:55.270 --> 00:52:56.570
with the Keeling curve.

1065
00:52:56.570 --> 00:52:59.340
So this is looking at carbon isotopes.

1066
00:52:59.340 --> 00:53:04.340
So this is carbon 12 versus carbon 13 ratios.

1067
00:53:05.210 --> 00:53:07.313
So it's not carbon dioxide.

1068
00:53:10.038 --> 00:53:13.180
And what we're seeing with this ratio being driven down

1069
00:53:13.180 --> 00:53:15.500
is because of the burning of fossil fuels.

1070
00:53:15.500 --> 00:53:17.500
So it looks kind like the Keeling curve,

1071
00:53:17.500 --> 00:53:21.063
but it's a different observation.

1072
00:53:23.800 --> 00:53:26.320
<v Kelly>Okay, thank you for the clarification.</v>

1073
00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:27.330
Next question.

1074
00:53:27.330 --> 00:53:29.690
Have you ever used corals from Stetson bank

1075
00:53:29.690 --> 00:53:30.790
to measure temperatures?

1076
00:53:30.790 --> 00:53:32.670
Despite being close to the Flower Garden Banks,

1077
00:53:32.670 --> 00:53:35.730
Stetson has no reef building coral or very little.

1078
00:53:35.730 --> 00:53:37.430
Could this be temperature related?

1079
00:53:39.100 --> 00:53:42.070
<v ->It's temperature related.</v>

1080
00:53:42.070 --> 00:53:45.230
There's a lot of the things that go into whether or not

1081
00:53:45.230 --> 00:53:48.253
a coral reef will become established.

1082
00:53:49.180 --> 00:53:51.040
Water depth is one of them.

1083
00:53:51.040 --> 00:53:52.523
Water clarity.

1084
00:53:54.520 --> 00:53:56.900
So whether or not there's a suitable substrate

1085
00:53:56.900 --> 00:53:58.910
like a hard bank.

1086
00:53:58.910 --> 00:54:01.030
Corals like to grow on top of rock.

1087
00:54:01.030 --> 00:54:03.990
They don't really like to grow on top of sand.

1088
00:54:03.990 --> 00:54:07.940
So you have to have kind of all the right conditions

1089
00:54:07.940 --> 00:54:10.290
for corals to form.

1090
00:54:10.290 --> 00:54:13.310
So there's lots of banks in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

1091
00:54:13.310 --> 00:54:16.260
We don't get corals on most of them.

1092
00:54:16.260 --> 00:54:18.363
There's very few places in the Northern Gulf

1093
00:54:18.363 --> 00:54:21.180
that have coral reefs.

1094
00:54:21.180 --> 00:54:24.400
We do know there's submerged fossil reefs

1095
00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:29.400
as you go over down towards the Padre islands.

1096
00:54:30.150 --> 00:54:34.560
Offshore, there are fossil reefs offshore they're dead.

1097
00:54:34.560 --> 00:54:38.530
They were alive when you go back to the early Holocene.

1098
00:54:38.530 --> 00:54:41.750
So as temperatures and sea levels were rising

1099
00:54:41.750 --> 00:54:43.680
after the last ice age,

1100
00:54:43.680 --> 00:54:46.860
you did have some reefs forming in other places in the Gulf,

1101
00:54:46.860 --> 00:54:48.860
but they ultimately became drowned

1102
00:54:48.860 --> 00:54:51.673
and they are now no longer coral reefs.

1103
00:54:52.755 --> 00:54:55.340
Like in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,

1104
00:54:55.340 --> 00:54:57.640
we don't have coral reefs.

1105
00:54:57.640 --> 00:54:59.500
Again, we have the Mississippi River

1106
00:54:59.500 --> 00:55:01.513
puts a lot of mud into the water.

1107
00:55:02.680 --> 00:55:05.500
When I'm over diving in Alabama,

1108
00:55:05.500 --> 00:55:07.120
I mean, we've got like a little window

1109
00:55:07.120 --> 00:55:08.550
where we get clear water

1110
00:55:08.550 --> 00:55:10.850
where we can see what we're doing underwater,

1111
00:55:10.850 --> 00:55:12.463
that's October, November.

1112
00:55:13.310 --> 00:55:15.120
Because all the Mississippi River floods,

1113
00:55:15.120 --> 00:55:17.100
the Mobile bay stopped flooding

1114
00:55:17.100 --> 00:55:19.140
and the water will actually clear up for us

1115
00:55:19.140 --> 00:55:23.040
a little bit in October and November.

1116
00:55:23.040 --> 00:55:27.173
But it has to be just the right location for corals to grow.

1117
00:55:28.450 --> 00:55:29.283
So.

1118
00:55:30.500 --> 00:55:32.950
<v Kelly>Okay. Thank you, Kristine.</v>

1119
00:55:32.950 --> 00:55:34.050
That is going to conclude

1120
00:55:34.050 --> 00:55:36.430
what we can get accomplished during our original hour.

1121
00:55:36.430 --> 00:55:37.550
But Kristine, hang on there,

1122
00:55:37.550 --> 00:55:39.190
we'll get back to a couple more questions

1123
00:55:39.190 --> 00:55:40.840
that are still out there for you.

1124
00:55:40.840 --> 00:55:44.100
Folks, if you need to wrap up, please listen in.

1125
00:55:44.100 --> 00:55:46.690
We're gonna wrap up the official part of the programming

1126
00:55:46.690 --> 00:55:47.670
and then we'll continue on

1127
00:55:47.670 --> 00:55:50.240
with the question and answer period.

1128
00:55:50.240 --> 00:55:52.680
Leslie, if you could please go ahead and show our screen

1129
00:55:52.680 --> 00:55:53.880
that would be wonderful.

1130
00:55:55.130 --> 00:55:56.020
As I said before,

1131
00:55:56.020 --> 00:55:57.900
depending on the number of questions remaining,

1132
00:55:57.900 --> 00:56:00.820
we will attempt to get them answered after the webinar ends

1133
00:56:00.820 --> 00:56:03.370
and we will email out responses.

1134
00:56:03.370 --> 00:56:04.820
Please also remember to check out

1135
00:56:04.820 --> 00:56:07.230
the links we shared with you throughout the presentation

1136
00:56:07.230 --> 00:56:09.890
to help you find more information on your own.

1137
00:56:09.890 --> 00:56:12.800
Those links are also shared in that one document available

1138
00:56:12.800 --> 00:56:14.650
in the handout pane.

1139
00:56:14.650 --> 00:56:15.810
We put all those links there.

1140
00:56:15.810 --> 00:56:17.300
So if you weren't paying attention to them

1141
00:56:17.300 --> 00:56:18.540
during the presentation,

1142
00:56:18.540 --> 00:56:20.610
you can go back and check on them later,

1143
00:56:20.610 --> 00:56:24.310
including our Coral Cores: Ocean Timelines activity.

1144
00:56:24.310 --> 00:56:26.770
That is a lesson, actually a lesson, not an activity

1145
00:56:26.770 --> 00:56:28.640
that can be used in the classroom.

1146
00:56:28.640 --> 00:56:30.520
So there's a lot of great information

1147
00:56:30.520 --> 00:56:31.760
on the Flower Gardens website

1148
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:34.040
and a few others about looking at corals

1149
00:56:34.040 --> 00:56:37.080
through the paleoclimatology lens.

1150
00:56:37.080 --> 00:56:39.970
You'll wanna check out some of those websites.

1151
00:56:39.970 --> 00:56:43.140
As a reminder, this is the last time

1152
00:56:43.140 --> 00:56:45.020
once we get to the end, you won't be able to download those.

1153
00:56:45.020 --> 00:56:48.200
So please, if you wanted to download those two handouts,

1154
00:56:48.200 --> 00:56:49.173
please do that now.

1155
00:56:50.920 --> 00:56:51.883
Next, please.

1156
00:56:53.550 --> 00:56:56.170
Thank you for attending the seaside chats presentation

1157
00:56:56.170 --> 00:56:59.220
on discovering climate history and coral skeletons.

1158
00:56:59.220 --> 00:57:01.710
This is the third in a series of four presentations

1159
00:57:01.710 --> 00:57:03.260
we are offering this month.

1160
00:57:03.260 --> 00:57:05.330
We invite you to register for the remaining chat

1161
00:57:05.330 --> 00:57:09.570
by visiting us on the web at flowergarden.noaa.gov.

1162
00:57:09.570 --> 00:57:12.045
We promise the next topic will be just as engaging

1163
00:57:12.045 --> 00:57:15.870
and informative as the ones we've already covered.

1164
00:57:15.870 --> 00:57:17.000
And I can assure you,

1165
00:57:17.000 --> 00:57:19.930
from checking out some Humpback Whales myself this week,

1166
00:57:19.930 --> 00:57:22.530
that they are a very interesting topic.

1167
00:57:22.530 --> 00:57:24.510
We'll be looking not just at the whales themselves

1168
00:57:24.510 --> 00:57:27.110
but the impacts they have on the marine ecosystems

1169
00:57:27.110 --> 00:57:29.690
around the Hawaiian islands.

1170
00:57:29.690 --> 00:57:32.310
We also welcome any feedback or further questions,

1171
00:57:32.310 --> 00:57:33.770
so you can submit input to us

1172
00:57:33.770 --> 00:57:36.060
by replying to the follow up email you'll receive

1173
00:57:36.060 --> 00:57:37.890
after the webinar

1174
00:57:37.890 --> 00:57:41.923
or by emailing us at flowergarden@noaa.gov.

1175
00:57:45.890 --> 00:57:47.060
Next please.

1176
00:57:47.060 --> 00:57:47.990
Today's presentation

1177
00:57:47.990 --> 00:57:49.620
has also been part of the National Marine

1178
00:57:49.620 --> 00:57:51.410
Sanctuaries webinar series.

1179
00:57:51.410 --> 00:57:54.000
While Seaside Chats last just one month,

1180
00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:56.920
our national webinar series continues throughout the year

1181
00:57:56.920 --> 00:57:58.730
to provide educators with educational

1182
00:57:58.730 --> 00:58:02.550
and scientific expertise, resources, and training

1183
00:58:02.550 --> 00:58:05.640
to support ocean and climate literacy in the classroom.

1184
00:58:05.640 --> 00:58:07.730
Be sure to check out the website for recordings

1185
00:58:07.730 --> 00:58:11.360
of past webinars and a schedule of what's to come.

1186
00:58:11.360 --> 00:58:14.150
As a reminder, we will share the recording of this webinar

1187
00:58:14.150 --> 00:58:16.360
via the National Marine Sanctuaries

1188
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:19.910
and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary websites.

1189
00:58:19.910 --> 00:58:21.600
And again, links to those are available

1190
00:58:21.600 --> 00:58:23.973
in that downloadable handout.

1191
00:58:25.330 --> 00:58:28.800
Following this webinar, attendees will receive a PDF copy

1192
00:58:28.800 --> 00:58:30.470
of a certificate of attendance

1193
00:58:30.470 --> 00:58:32.920
that provides documentation for one hour

1194
00:58:32.920 --> 00:58:35.990
of professional development for today's presentation.

1195
00:58:35.990 --> 00:58:39.040
This includes our Texas CPE provider number,

1196
00:58:39.040 --> 00:58:41.300
for those of you who are Texas educators.

1197
00:58:41.300 --> 00:58:43.710
And if you are an educator outside of Texas,

1198
00:58:43.710 --> 00:58:46.250
please use this certificate to help get your hours approved

1199
00:58:46.250 --> 00:58:47.680
in your district.

1200
00:58:47.680 --> 00:58:49.640
If you require additional information,

1201
00:58:49.640 --> 00:58:54.063
by all means, contact me at flowergarden@noaa.gov.

1202
00:58:55.110 --> 00:58:56.760
There will also be a short evaluation

1203
00:58:56.760 --> 00:58:58.590
following today's presentation.

1204
00:58:58.590 --> 00:58:59.770
Please complete this survey

1205
00:58:59.770 --> 00:59:02.210
immediately after signing off the webinar.

1206
00:59:02.210 --> 00:59:04.160
It should only take about three minutes to complete,

1207
00:59:04.160 --> 00:59:06.270
and we really appreciate any feedback

1208
00:59:06.270 --> 00:59:07.633
you are willing to share.

1209
00:59:09.260 --> 00:59:10.093
And again,

1210
00:59:10.093 --> 00:59:13.360
thanks to Kristine DeLong for a very great presentation

1211
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:16.190
about Discovering Climate History in Coral Skeletons

1212
00:59:16.190 --> 00:59:19.330
and the stories these coral cores can tell us.

1213
00:59:19.330 --> 00:59:21.950
For those of you who need to drop off now,

1214
00:59:21.950 --> 00:59:23.890
this is the time to do that.

1215
00:59:23.890 --> 00:59:26.060
But the rest of you feel free to hang on,

1216
00:59:26.060 --> 00:59:27.280
we are going to continue on

1217
00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:29.030
with our question and answer session

1218
00:59:29.030 --> 00:59:31.613
for about another 10 to 15 minutes.

1219
00:59:33.300 --> 00:59:34.313
Ready Kristine?

1220
00:59:35.680 --> 00:59:37.120
<v ->Ready.</v>

1221
00:59:37.120 --> 00:59:38.170
<v Kelly>All righty.</v>

1222
00:59:40.010 --> 00:59:42.010
Question is using the chemical structure

1223
00:59:42.010 --> 00:59:44.990
of the coral cores before,

1224
00:59:44.990 --> 00:59:48.430
has the prediction of future climate change been on mark

1225
00:59:48.430 --> 00:59:50.293
or is that still being worked on?

1226
00:59:53.660 --> 00:59:55.430
<v ->So, okay so can we use the coral cores</v>

1227
00:59:55.430 --> 00:59:57.873
to project what's gonna happen in the future?

1228
00:59:59.230 --> 01:00:02.430
Yes, we're still working on that.

1229
01:00:02.430 --> 01:00:04.820
So as I mentioned, there's some disagreements

1230
01:00:04.820 --> 01:00:09.230
between the corals and the climate models.

1231
01:00:09.230 --> 01:00:14.230
And I do work with climate modelers to figure out,

1232
01:00:18.132 --> 01:00:20.430
you know what we're...let me back up.

1233
01:00:20.430 --> 01:00:23.200
One of the ways we can improve the climate model

1234
01:00:23.200 --> 01:00:25.110
is by looking at the past.

1235
01:00:25.110 --> 01:00:28.630
So we gotta give it the data to train itself on.

1236
01:00:28.630 --> 01:00:31.270
And the instrumental period is short.

1237
01:00:31.270 --> 01:00:34.660
So we don't have maybe a hundred years on land.

1238
01:00:34.660 --> 01:00:37.990
In the ocean, those records are really short.

1239
01:00:37.990 --> 01:00:42.270
So like finding a hundred years of ocean data is just not,

1240
01:00:42.270 --> 01:00:44.580
it doesn't happen in too many locations.

1241
01:00:44.580 --> 01:00:47.580
Maybe we have 20, 30 years max.

1242
01:00:47.580 --> 01:00:50.810
So the problem is as you get into colder intervals

1243
01:00:50.810 --> 01:00:52.740
or warmer intervals in the past,

1244
01:00:52.740 --> 01:00:56.920
the models don't have anything to train on

1245
01:00:56.920 --> 01:00:59.590
to get their algorithms working right.

1246
01:00:59.590 --> 01:01:04.440
So that's one of the things paleo records can provide

1247
01:01:04.440 --> 01:01:06.470
is to give them targets

1248
01:01:06.470 --> 01:01:10.190
so that they can go in and refine the models.

1249
01:01:10.190 --> 01:01:12.790
So what's working with all the different equations

1250
01:01:12.790 --> 01:01:14.810
and how they interact with each other

1251
01:01:14.810 --> 01:01:18.550
so that they can get the same thing we're seeing

1252
01:01:18.550 --> 01:01:20.140
in the paleo record

1253
01:01:20.140 --> 01:01:21.960
for these different intervals in the past.

1254
01:01:21.960 --> 01:01:24.710
So the last interglacials are a really important one

1255
01:01:24.710 --> 01:01:27.800
because we have higher sea levels.

1256
01:01:27.800 --> 01:01:29.430
It's a warmer time interval,

1257
01:01:29.430 --> 01:01:32.450
so we want the climate models to get that interval right.

1258
01:01:32.450 --> 01:01:33.780
And if they get that right,

1259
01:01:33.780 --> 01:01:37.610
then they should be able to improve their projections

1260
01:01:37.610 --> 01:01:39.470
into the future.

1261
01:01:39.470 --> 01:01:41.240
So that's how we work together.

1262
01:01:41.240 --> 01:01:44.860
So it's not necessarily the corals are projecting the future

1263
01:01:44.860 --> 01:01:47.810
the corals are providing that record of the past

1264
01:01:47.810 --> 01:01:50.770
for climate models to train on

1265
01:01:50.770 --> 01:01:55.770
and to tweak and make the changes they need to

1266
01:01:58.870 --> 01:02:02.260
so that the models are recording the past

1267
01:02:02.260 --> 01:02:05.080
as how we see them in the geologic record.

1268
01:02:05.080 --> 01:02:06.400
And if they can do that,

1269
01:02:06.400 --> 01:02:08.830
then they should be able to also

1270
01:02:08.830 --> 01:02:11.623
refine their projections into the future.

1271
01:02:15.090 --> 01:02:16.090
<v Kelly>Thank you.</v>

1272
01:02:17.140 --> 01:02:17.980
Next question.

1273
01:02:17.980 --> 01:02:20.770
Can cores or skeletons from deeper corals,

1274
01:02:20.770 --> 01:02:24.023
greater than 50 meters, help resolve some issues?

1275
01:02:25.320 --> 01:02:26.270
<v ->50 Meters?</v>

1276
01:02:26.270 --> 01:02:27.940
Oh, if there was big ones that deep,

1277
01:02:27.940 --> 01:02:30.567
it would be really interesting to see.

1278
01:02:31.558 --> 01:02:36.558
We don't normally see the massive boulder corals that deep.

1279
01:02:37.170 --> 01:02:41.110
So they corals will start to grow in more of a platey form,

1280
01:02:41.110 --> 01:02:45.163
but we can use deep sea or cold water corals.

1281
01:02:46.030 --> 01:02:48.793
They tend to be smaller.

1282
01:02:50.060 --> 01:02:53.440
Many of them are branching. Some of them are cup corals.

1283
01:02:53.440 --> 01:02:58.230
I am working on a project right now with some folks at LSU

1284
01:02:58.230 --> 01:03:01.020
on Antarctica cup corals

1285
01:03:02.210 --> 01:03:05.270
and these cup corals some of them are 800 years old,

1286
01:03:05.270 --> 01:03:07.720
some of them are a couple thousand years old.

1287
01:03:07.720 --> 01:03:10.340
So we're looking at them right now

1288
01:03:10.340 --> 01:03:13.170
trying to figure out, can we get histories out of 'em.

1289
01:03:13.170 --> 01:03:16.280
We don't even know how long these corals live.

1290
01:03:16.280 --> 01:03:18.070
They could live for just a couple years.

1291
01:03:18.070 --> 01:03:20.920
They could live for hundreds of years.

1292
01:03:20.920 --> 01:03:23.130
So we're working on that now.

1293
01:03:23.130 --> 01:03:26.730
So yes, we can use corals from deeper waters

1294
01:03:26.730 --> 01:03:27.973
where it's colder.

1295
01:03:29.485 --> 01:03:32.350
The science is still being established.

1296
01:03:32.350 --> 01:03:34.810
There's lots of different coral species,

1297
01:03:34.810 --> 01:03:37.380
we're trying to figure out the right ones to use

1298
01:03:37.380 --> 01:03:42.380
getting the chemistry right but yeah, hypothetically yes,

1299
01:03:42.520 --> 01:03:43.710
it can be done.

1300
01:03:43.710 --> 01:03:47.030
And I do have projects right now

1301
01:03:47.030 --> 01:03:48.580
where we are trying to do that.

1302
01:03:51.220 --> 01:03:52.080
<v Kelly>Okay.</v>

1303
01:03:52.080 --> 01:03:54.690
The next question has to do with the barite signature.

1304
01:03:54.690 --> 01:03:57.723
And is it harmful to the corals?

1305
01:04:00.730 --> 01:04:01.930
<v ->Sorry, say that again.</v>

1306
01:04:03.220 --> 01:04:05.140
<v Kelly>Looking at the barite signature.</v>

1307
01:04:05.140 --> 01:04:07.370
So, you know, you see it in the corals

1308
01:04:07.370 --> 01:04:08.780
and it's telling you what's going on around it,

1309
01:04:08.780 --> 01:04:11.730
but is it damaging, is it harmful to the corals themselves?

1310
01:04:15.740 --> 01:04:19.500
<v ->Okay, yeah. So is the barium harmful to the corals?</v>

1311
01:04:19.500 --> 01:04:23.940
Barium itself is not per se harmful to corals.

1312
01:04:23.940 --> 01:04:26.010
So it's not poisonous.

1313
01:04:26.010 --> 01:04:28.870
If you've ever had to go and get like a colonoscopy,

1314
01:04:28.870 --> 01:04:30.350
one of the things they have you drink

1315
01:04:30.350 --> 01:04:32.597
to clean yourself out is barite.

1316
01:04:33.810 --> 01:04:37.379
So again, you don't want to drink or eat a lot of it.

1317
01:04:37.379 --> 01:04:42.379
So again, it's like barium per se is not toxic to corals.

1318
01:04:43.160 --> 01:04:44.540
So that being said,

1319
01:04:44.540 --> 01:04:48.920
there is some folks who've done work with barium

1320
01:04:48.920 --> 01:04:52.120
and looking at coral skeletal structure

1321
01:04:52.120 --> 01:04:54.900
from an engineering standpoint.

1322
01:04:54.900 --> 01:04:59.900
And what they're finding is because barium is a larger atom

1323
01:05:00.150 --> 01:05:02.000
than calcium.

1324
01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:04.340
So what happens is when you get a lot of barium

1325
01:05:04.340 --> 01:05:07.050
into the coral skeleton,

1326
01:05:07.050 --> 01:05:09.980
its engineering properties, its strength,

1327
01:05:09.980 --> 01:05:12.920
its brittleness start to change.

1328
01:05:12.920 --> 01:05:16.340
So what could potentially happen

1329
01:05:16.340 --> 01:05:19.380
is as we get more barium in sea water

1330
01:05:19.380 --> 01:05:22.360
that barium is getting incorporated into the corals,

1331
01:05:22.360 --> 01:05:25.010
it could result in the corals

1332
01:05:25.010 --> 01:05:27.510
not being as structurally sound

1333
01:05:27.510 --> 01:05:32.163
as they would be if that barium level was lower.

1334
01:05:40.970 --> 01:05:43.689
So I think I answered the question.

1335
01:05:43.689 --> 01:05:47.385
<v Kelly>Okay. Sorry, I had a pause in my internet here-</v>

1336
01:05:47.385 --> 01:05:48.552
<v ->That's fine.</v>

1337
01:05:50.870 --> 01:05:54.063
<v Kelly>What are your future research goals and topics?</v>

1338
01:05:55.150 --> 01:05:56.560
<v ->So future research goals.</v>

1339
01:05:56.560 --> 01:06:00.140
Oh, I have so many of 'em. That's my problem,

1340
01:06:00.140 --> 01:06:02.290
is I have lots of things I'm interested in.

1341
01:06:03.220 --> 01:06:06.050
Right now what I want to do is, you know,

1342
01:06:06.050 --> 01:06:09.600
finish up all of these Atlantic corals.

1343
01:06:09.600 --> 01:06:13.220
We have other proxies we're looking at.

1344
01:06:13.220 --> 01:06:15.350
One of them I'm really excited about

1345
01:06:15.350 --> 01:06:17.420
is the rare earth elements.

1346
01:06:17.420 --> 01:06:21.340
And we can connect that to African dust

1347
01:06:21.340 --> 01:06:25.900
and these dust storms that come across the Atlantic ocean.

1348
01:06:25.900 --> 01:06:27.100
I think even in Galveston,

1349
01:06:27.100 --> 01:06:30.150
sometimes you guys get the dust storms in the summertime,

1350
01:06:30.150 --> 01:06:32.200
and if you have allergies, it's horrible.

1351
01:06:33.750 --> 01:06:36.060
So understanding the dust storms,

1352
01:06:36.060 --> 01:06:38.210
'cause they're connected to the trade winds

1353
01:06:38.210 --> 01:06:40.070
and understanding trade winds

1354
01:06:40.070 --> 01:06:44.850
strength is a really important climate variable

1355
01:06:44.850 --> 01:06:49.080
that we want to try to understand.

1356
01:06:49.080 --> 01:06:51.390
And like when I talk to the climate modelers,

1357
01:06:51.390 --> 01:06:54.680
I'm always like, what information can I give you

1358
01:06:54.680 --> 01:06:55.690
to help you?

1359
01:06:55.690 --> 01:06:57.670
And they're like, give me winds.

1360
01:06:57.670 --> 01:07:00.730
And I'm like, okay, how do I reconstruct winds?

1361
01:07:00.730 --> 01:07:03.200
That's a really tricky question.

1362
01:07:03.200 --> 01:07:05.720
But dust is one of those things we can use

1363
01:07:05.720 --> 01:07:10.260
to reconstruct what's happening with the winds.

1364
01:07:10.260 --> 01:07:12.153
So I can look at wind strength.

1365
01:07:13.870 --> 01:07:15.990
We can look at dust sources.

1366
01:07:15.990 --> 01:07:18.820
So we know whether or not the dust is coming from Africa

1367
01:07:18.820 --> 01:07:19.850
or not.

1368
01:07:19.850 --> 01:07:22.010
And that's one of the things we're doing in the Caribbean

1369
01:07:22.010 --> 01:07:25.590
with barium is when we get on the north side of the islands,

1370
01:07:25.590 --> 01:07:28.960
when you have really strong winds, you get upwelling.

1371
01:07:28.960 --> 01:07:32.240
And barium can be used as an upwelling proxy.

1372
01:07:32.240 --> 01:07:33.073
So yeah,

1373
01:07:33.073 --> 01:07:35.350
so that's one of those kind of like lifetime things

1374
01:07:35.350 --> 01:07:38.700
I've been working on is how do I get a good wind proxy.

1375
01:07:38.700 --> 01:07:41.940
And we continue to work on that.

1376
01:07:41.940 --> 01:07:44.450
We actually did some work on that with those Haiti corals

1377
01:07:44.450 --> 01:07:47.470
that I showed you, looking at the rare earths,

1378
01:07:47.470 --> 01:07:50.324
but I didn't show it in this presentation.

1379
01:07:50.324 --> 01:07:52.210
So yeah, lots of things.

1380
01:07:52.210 --> 01:07:54.290
And then I'm still doing the work

1381
01:07:54.290 --> 01:07:57.010
with the underwater forest,

1382
01:07:57.010 --> 01:08:01.020
which is just an absolutely fascinating project.

1383
01:08:01.020 --> 01:08:03.610
I've been working on that for 10 years now.

1384
01:08:03.610 --> 01:08:06.190
I'll probably keep working on it for the next 10.

1385
01:08:06.190 --> 01:08:08.023
We keep finding new sites.

1386
01:08:09.630 --> 01:08:13.100
And you know, trying to understand what's happening

1387
01:08:13.100 --> 01:08:15.970
with this basically it's a ice age forest

1388
01:08:15.970 --> 01:08:18.080
that's out on the continental shelf

1389
01:08:18.080 --> 01:08:22.020
and trying to understand it's, where it occurs,

1390
01:08:22.020 --> 01:08:25.620
why it's preserved, where it's located.

1391
01:08:25.620 --> 01:08:29.363
So that's a big part of what I do. So.

1392
01:08:31.370 --> 01:08:32.203
<v Kelly>Wonderful.</v>

1393
01:08:32.203 --> 01:08:33.440
Maybe we'll have to have you back for another talk

1394
01:08:33.440 --> 01:08:35.680
on the underwater forest.

1395
01:08:35.680 --> 01:08:38.950
<v ->Yeah. I Would love it.</v>
<v ->Another season.</v>

1396
01:08:38.950 --> 01:08:40.280
All right.

1397
01:08:40.280 --> 01:08:43.050
We have time for maybe one or two more questions.

1398
01:08:43.050 --> 01:08:44.320
Let's see.

1399
01:08:44.320 --> 01:08:46.060
Have you ever compared your coral data,

1400
01:08:46.060 --> 01:08:48.833
to other data from tree rings or ice core samples?

1401
01:08:50.260 --> 01:08:51.940
<v ->Ah, great question.</v>

1402
01:08:51.940 --> 01:08:56.700
Yes, that is actually another project that I'm working on.

1403
01:08:56.700 --> 01:08:58.930
Some, actually people I went to,

1404
01:08:58.930 --> 01:09:00.680
friends I went to grad school with.

1405
01:09:01.550 --> 01:09:03.310
So I work with Grant Harley

1406
01:09:03.310 --> 01:09:06.010
who does tree ring reconstructions.

1407
01:09:06.010 --> 01:09:09.300
So he works down in the Florida Keys in Florida

1408
01:09:09.300 --> 01:09:13.160
and in Mississippi region.

1409
01:09:13.160 --> 01:09:17.080
And I also work with Jason Polk

1410
01:09:17.080 --> 01:09:21.970
who's at Western Kentucky University.

1411
01:09:21.970 --> 01:09:25.150
And he does cave reconstructions

1412
01:09:25.150 --> 01:09:28.670
with stalactites and stalagmites.

1413
01:09:28.670 --> 01:09:31.090
So he has a really nice reconstruction

1414
01:09:31.090 --> 01:09:33.960
of what's happening with precipitation in Florida,

1415
01:09:33.960 --> 01:09:37.370
going back over the last 2000 years.

1416
01:09:37.370 --> 01:09:40.100
So as we finish up the Flower Gardens

1417
01:09:40.100 --> 01:09:42.880
and the Vera Cruz reconstructions,

1418
01:09:42.880 --> 01:09:45.870
we'll be comparing that to the tree ring records

1419
01:09:45.870 --> 01:09:48.110
and also to these cave records.

1420
01:09:48.110 --> 01:09:51.360
So in Florida, there's some in Alabama as well,

1421
01:09:51.360 --> 01:09:53.250
and then also over in Texas

1422
01:09:53.250 --> 01:09:56.170
that we'll be pulling all of these together.

1423
01:09:56.170 --> 01:09:57.210
So even in Mexico,

1424
01:09:57.210 --> 01:10:00.440
there's some really nice reconstructions down in Mexico

1425
01:10:00.440 --> 01:10:02.380
and Belize, as well.

1426
01:10:02.380 --> 01:10:05.420
So yes, we'll be pulling all these different proxies

1427
01:10:05.420 --> 01:10:06.253
together.

1428
01:10:08.520 --> 01:10:09.520
<v Kelly>Wonderful.</v>

1429
01:10:11.780 --> 01:10:13.040
Hold on one second.

1430
01:10:13.040 --> 01:10:16.110
I gotta reorganize my screen here. There we go.

1431
01:10:16.110 --> 01:10:18.720
What is your data predicting in terms of bleaching

1432
01:10:18.720 --> 01:10:19.553
for the Caribbean

1433
01:10:19.553 --> 01:10:22.263
if the sea surface temperature rises two degrees?

1434
01:10:24.050 --> 01:10:24.883
<v ->Yeah.</v>

1435
01:10:27.010 --> 01:10:28.710
Yeah, it's one of those,

1436
01:10:28.710 --> 01:10:30.570
I wanna have hope,

1437
01:10:30.570 --> 01:10:34.323
you know, corals will find a way to survive.

1438
01:10:37.690 --> 01:10:41.130
You know, with two degrees warming, it's going to be,

1439
01:10:41.130 --> 01:10:42.733
we're gonna lose some corals.

1440
01:10:43.670 --> 01:10:45.310
And it's one of the things that's kind of nice

1441
01:10:45.310 --> 01:10:46.710
about diving Flower Gardens

1442
01:10:46.710 --> 01:10:48.993
is it's such a beautiful, healthy reef.

1443
01:10:50.020 --> 01:10:52.130
And then when I go out to the Caymans,

1444
01:10:52.130 --> 01:10:55.450
and Little Cayman is one of the better islands to go

1445
01:10:55.450 --> 01:10:57.890
because there's hardly any people there.

1446
01:10:57.890 --> 01:11:00.740
The only people who go to Little Cayman is to scuba dive.

1447
01:11:02.020 --> 01:11:03.750
And there's nice reefs there,

1448
01:11:03.750 --> 01:11:06.690
but you know, a couple of years ago

1449
01:11:06.690 --> 01:11:09.970
I went to Indonesia

1450
01:11:09.970 --> 01:11:13.520
and we went out and did a little snorkeling trip

1451
01:11:13.520 --> 01:11:17.170
and they just took us out to a spot that let us snorkel

1452
01:11:17.170 --> 01:11:18.610
and I put my head in the water and I was like,

1453
01:11:18.610 --> 01:11:22.270
oh my God, I forgot what a beautiful coral reef looks like

1454
01:11:22.270 --> 01:11:23.103
in the Pacific.

1455
01:11:23.103 --> 01:11:25.450
There's just corals everywhere.

1456
01:11:25.450 --> 01:11:28.150
And they were like, oh, this isn't even our best reef.

1457
01:11:29.330 --> 01:11:32.463
So yeah, so I think, you know, for the Caribbean,

1458
01:11:33.870 --> 01:11:36.980
it's yeah, it's been degrading for some time.

1459
01:11:36.980 --> 01:11:39.260
It will continue to degrade

1460
01:11:39.260 --> 01:11:42.480
and it's sad to see

1461
01:11:42.480 --> 01:11:45.770
and I hope it doesn't happen.

1462
01:11:45.770 --> 01:11:48.950
You hear these anecdotal stories about,

1463
01:11:48.950 --> 01:11:50.870
you know, corals are being found

1464
01:11:50.870 --> 01:11:52.993
further up the Florida coast,

1465
01:11:54.540 --> 01:11:56.150
you know, deeper waters,

1466
01:11:56.150 --> 01:11:59.330
we're finding kind of refugia for corals.

1467
01:11:59.330 --> 01:12:03.530
So maybe the shallow water corals may not survive,

1468
01:12:03.530 --> 01:12:07.590
but in other locations, the corals themselves may survive.

1469
01:12:07.590 --> 01:12:10.653
The reefs won't because you lose that structure,

1470
01:12:11.670 --> 01:12:15.390
but they may survive in other locations.

1471
01:12:15.390 --> 01:12:19.240
And Bermuda is another place I love scuba diving there.

1472
01:12:19.240 --> 01:12:22.520
I mean, there you have some really cold waters in the winter

1473
01:12:22.520 --> 01:12:25.350
but the corals survive in the summertime

1474
01:12:25.350 --> 01:12:28.660
and with temperatures rising, we may have,

1475
01:12:28.660 --> 01:12:32.993
you know, the Bermuda may be a refugia for corals, as well.

1476
01:12:35.400 --> 01:12:36.410
<v Kelly>Interesting.</v>

1477
01:12:36.410 --> 01:12:39.340
Okay, and we'll make this the last question.

1478
01:12:39.340 --> 01:12:42.823
Does dead coral work as well as live coral for your work?

1479
01:12:44.300 --> 01:12:46.110
<v ->It does.</v>

1480
01:12:46.110 --> 01:12:49.270
You have to, you know, it's different.

1481
01:12:49.270 --> 01:12:50.640
We have to check, you know,

1482
01:12:50.640 --> 01:12:54.430
to make sure that the coral's still original skeleton,

1483
01:12:54.430 --> 01:12:58.600
so it hasn't started to go thru the fossilization process.

1484
01:12:58.600 --> 01:13:02.490
'Cause a fossil itself means that it's original

1485
01:13:02.490 --> 01:13:06.840
mineral makeup has changed.

1486
01:13:06.840 --> 01:13:08.160
So that's why on my slide,

1487
01:13:08.160 --> 01:13:12.030
I put sub fossil because if it's fossilized,

1488
01:13:12.030 --> 01:13:14.190
I lose my chemical signal.

1489
01:13:14.190 --> 01:13:16.450
So I don't want fossilized corals.

1490
01:13:16.450 --> 01:13:19.490
I want dead corals that are well preserved,

1491
01:13:19.490 --> 01:13:22.660
but still have their intact original skeleton.

1492
01:13:22.660 --> 01:13:24.740
So that's mainly what we have to check for

1493
01:13:24.740 --> 01:13:26.270
with the dead corals,

1494
01:13:26.270 --> 01:13:28.900
is that they haven't started to go through

1495
01:13:28.900 --> 01:13:31.350
this diagenetic process

1496
01:13:31.350 --> 01:13:34.770
of the aragonite changing to calcite

1497
01:13:34.770 --> 01:13:38.741
and we lose that chemical signature.

1498
01:13:38.741 --> 01:13:41.940
So like, yeah, that last slide I was showing was

1499
01:13:41.940 --> 01:13:45.220
the Cayman islands, those last interglacial reefs.

1500
01:13:45.220 --> 01:13:46.650
And a lot of those reefs

1501
01:13:46.650 --> 01:13:50.483
have started to go through that diagenetic process.

1502
01:13:51.400 --> 01:13:52.610
The same in Florida.

1503
01:13:52.610 --> 01:13:56.530
There's some really nice fossilized reefs all around Florida

1504
01:13:56.530 --> 01:13:58.070
but they've already started to go through

1505
01:13:58.070 --> 01:14:00.370
that diagenesis process.

1506
01:14:00.370 --> 01:14:01.683
So you lose the signal.

1507
01:14:04.240 --> 01:14:06.380
<v Kelly>Well, you've got a fan in Bermuda online</v>

1508
01:14:06.380 --> 01:14:08.970
who says that you should come for a visit.

1509
01:14:08.970 --> 01:14:09.810
They have great reefs.

1510
01:14:09.810 --> 01:14:13.240
And they're doing some paleoclimatology with Anne Cohen.

1511
01:14:13.240 --> 01:14:14.250
<v ->Yes. Yes.</v>

1512
01:14:14.250 --> 01:14:15.390
So I know Anne.

1513
01:14:15.390 --> 01:14:17.249
Yes, I love Bermuda.

1514
01:14:17.249 --> 01:14:18.960
It's been a long time since I've been there.

1515
01:14:18.960 --> 01:14:20.910
I'll have to come back and visit again.

1516
01:14:22.080 --> 01:14:22.913
<v Kelly>Wonderful.</v>

1517
01:14:22.913 --> 01:14:25.230
Well folks, we are so appreciative of you all

1518
01:14:25.230 --> 01:14:26.550
joining us this evening.

1519
01:14:26.550 --> 01:14:29.590
Thank you so much Kristine for a great presentation.

1520
01:14:29.590 --> 01:14:34.590
As one of our commenters said, "You are a great explainer.

1521
01:14:34.760 --> 01:14:36.720
You make all those graphs mean something

1522
01:14:36.720 --> 01:14:38.720
to people who don't see that kind of stuff every day."

1523
01:14:38.720 --> 01:14:41.470
It was really great, very interesting aspects,

1524
01:14:41.470 --> 01:14:43.190
things I hadn't heard about it before,

1525
01:14:43.190 --> 01:14:45.830
I just think this was a great presentation

1526
01:14:45.830 --> 01:14:48.600
about Discovering Climate History and Coral Skeletons.

1527
01:14:48.600 --> 01:14:51.140
And it really is true, corals tell us stories,

1528
01:14:51.140 --> 01:14:52.590
both living and dead

1529
01:14:52.590 --> 01:14:56.160
and we continue to learn from them every day.

1530
01:14:56.160 --> 01:14:57.950
Thank you so much Kristine

1531
01:14:57.950 --> 01:14:59.980
and thanks to all of you who stayed on with us.

1532
01:14:59.980 --> 01:15:03.860
We had another like 80 or so people that stayed on

1533
01:15:03.860 --> 01:15:05.530
for the extra question and answer.

1534
01:15:05.530 --> 01:15:08.580
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to join us today.

1535
01:15:08.580 --> 01:15:10.603
And this concludes today's webinar.

1536
01:15:12.100 --> 01:15:13.603
<v ->Thanks. Bye.</v>