Med Archives
23 March
The first in a series of documentaries published in the Coastal
Studies journal in 2008, Med Archives describes the research
activity carried out by a group of paleoclimatologists, led by the
Global Climate Change and Coastal Studies Unit of ISPRA. For the
first time the geochemical experiences gained by studying the coral
reefs of tropical seas corals was applied to the Mediterranean
Sea.
As a matter of a fact, corals are surprisingly accurate
thermometers: the relationship between chemical elements that form
the skeleton are often not random, but reflect the sea temperature
during the growth. Year by year new bands are added to the skeleton
of the coral, covering several centuries of history as in Porites,
typical of the Indian and the Pacific Ocean.
ISPRA's documentary shows how it was possible to calibrate
thermodynamic curves capable of correlating some relationships
between trace elements analyzed in the coral skeleton (typically Sr
/ Ca, B / Ca, Mg / Ca, Li / Ca) with water temperatures, getting a
new and amazing climate record: the madreporario Cladocora
caespitosa.