VERTICAL MIXING AND CORAL DEATH IN THE RED-SEA FOLLOWING THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT-PINATUBO

被引:250
作者
GENIN, A [1 ]
LAZAR, B [1 ]
BRENNER, S [1 ]
机构
[1] ISRAEL OCEANOG & LIMNOL RES,HAIFA,ISRAEL
关键词
D O I
10.1038/377507a0
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
THE eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines led to a cold air-temperature anomaly throughout the Middle East during the winter of 1992(1). Here me report that the vertical mixing in the Gulf of Eilat (Aqaba) that winter was unusually deep--extending to >850 m--resulting in increased supply of nutrients to surface waters, which fuelled extraordinarily large algal and phytoplankton blooms. By spring, a thick mat of filamentous algae covered broad sections of the underlying reef causing extensive coral death. Branching colonies and solitary mushroom corals were most severely affected. This sequence of events, in which a short-term atmospheric cooling leads to a remarkable ecological response, is made possible by the unusually weak water-column stratification of the Gulf of Eilat. The depth of local vertical mixing during winter is determined by the net heat loss across the sea-air interface, so that anomalously cold winters drive the deeper mixing that can lead to increased phytoplankton blooms. Records of such events in fossil reefs may provide useful indicators of past variations in regional air temperatures.
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页码:507 / 510
页数:4
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