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unc o n v en t i o n al wisdom
The Marine Ecologist Adrienne Simões Corrêa is on a quest to engage landlocked Rice students in the study of coral reefs — complex and fragile ecosystems found in tropical marine environments. As a faculty lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology in Rice’s Department of BioSciences, Corrêa teaches Coral Reef Ecosystems and Introduction to Aquatic Ecology with Scuba Lab. In 2014, she was the recipient of a Brown Teaching Grant in support of teaching coral reef ecology.
WHAT I STUDY My research focuses on symbioses — some help coral reefs grow large, others contribute to coral death and destruction. I’m particularly excited about the small algae that live inside of coral tissues, photosynthesize sugars and dump them into their animal hosts. Corals then use that energy to build large reef frameworks. 8
R i c e M a g a z i n e | FA L L 2 0 1 5
On the dark side, I’m fascinated by coral viruses and animals that bore into and break apart reefs. ... AND WHY Shallow water coral reef ecosystems occupy less than one percent of the ocean floor, but they harbor more than 25 percent of marine diversity, including about 5,000 species of fish. They also protect shorelines, so if you have hurricanes or tsunamis coming in, coral reefs will take some of the brunt of the wave energy that’s associated and reduce the amount of shoreline that’s eroded. Many coral reefs are in decline due to human impacts. It’s death by a thousand cuts. I want to understand and help limit reef degradation. CORAL REEF ONE-LINERS Coral reefs are the rain forests of the sea. Coral reefs are the canary in the coal mine of the ocean. There are a million oneliners about them. Reefs are an early warning
adam cruft
CORAL REEF 101 A coral colony on the reef is part rock, part animal and part plant. The rock part is a calcium carbonate, a limestone skeleton that the living coral animal lays down. It calcifies a little cup for itself, a corallite, and the living animal sits inside of that. The coral tissue in a colony is all one genetic individual. The reef itself is this massive limestone structure that can extend sometimes for kilometers, made up of these different colonies and other organisms, like sponges. All of this supports a massive diversity of life.