Geology 115: Coral Reefs: Biology, Geology and Politics
Spring Semester - 2009

Lectures: Tue/Thur 11 - 12:15: Severance 108

Instructor: Dennis Hubbard - 405 Carnegie; tel: 5-8346; dennis.hubbard@oberlin.edu

Office hours: Tuesday (12:15 - 1:00) and Wednesday (11:00 - 12:00)

COURSE OVERVIEW: This course provides a broad survey of both modern and fossil reefs. It starts with modern coral reefs, focusing on how they form, how they function as part of a larger system and what controls their present distribution. The early emphasis is more biological and examines processes on spatial scales of millimeters to hundreds of kilometers - over timeframes ranging from minutes to lifetimes. The second part looks at reefs over a longer temporal scale (i.e., thousands to hundreds of millions of years), considering how the structures that we see today were built and how natural environmental factors have controlled that process in the shorter term (tens of thousands of years) plus reef evolution over the past billion years. Finally, we will examine the recent and dramatic decline of coral reefs on a variety of scales, using the backdrop of natural processes to understand how growing human population and increased exploitation of natural resources have changed the environment in which today's coral reefs struggle to survive. Our goal will be to consider how science fits into societal perceptions and policy making. Reversing these and other anthropogenically driven declines can only happen when we begin to understand how gese and other natural systems work, how we depend on them, how we are impacting them, and what we might do remediate damage - and, in the process, become better global citizens. Change cannot come only with social and political will. However, positive change can come only to those that are well informed.

TEXT: Because no suitable text exists, I am in the process of writing an electronic text. It presently covers only the earliest lectures, so don't get too dependant on it. Also, while what is finished is designed specifically for this course, it is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject - nor is it a substitute for coming to class. Where available, you should read it before class to help prepare you for the lecture topic that day or for other readings that might be assigned. A password is required to access this site to solve copyright issues; this will be provided in class. Please do not share it with anyone outside of the course.

READINGS: I will be asssigning selected readings that are available as electronic copies from eRes. I will not be placing hard copies on reserve. Many of these articles are from the peer-reviewed scientific literature and can be pretty "chewy" - so I will try to post additional materials in the e-text to help you with the jargon in the articles or to identify the most important material. Please keep in mind that I will assume that you have read the appropriate material on the day for which it is listed.

POWERPOINT: You can download simplified versions of my PowerPoint lectures from eres. I will try to have them available the evening before lecture so you can print them out as note-taking aids. Please print them three per page - and ideally on a printer that allows front-and-back printing.

SECTIONS: This year, the two sections are based on where you are in your academic career at Oberlin. his has been set up to take into account differences in learning styles and needs for different kinds (and frequencies) of feedback on how you are doing. The morning section is for first- and second-year students. The afternoon section is for third-year and later students. The two lectures may NOT be identical, so attending the alternate will probably cause you problems eventually.

GRADING
Exam 1 (20%)
Exam 2 (20%)
Final Exam (25%)
Three Short papers (2-3 p: 30%)
Self-Guided Labs & Quizzes (5%)

THE OBERLIN HONOR CODE is in force for all graded activities. You are expected to complete work on your own, except where otherwise instructed in writing. If you have any questions about either the Honor Code or its application to this course, please contact me.

Some Important Rules to Keep in Mind:

• All assignments need to be handed in on time. I will deduct 2 points per hour for late assignments, and will accept no late assignment after 5:00 pm on the day after it is due, at which time a zero grade will be awarded. If you are falling behind or have another pressing assignment due on the same day as one of the major papers, talk to me far enough ahead of time (i.e., not the day before it is due) so we might try to work something out.
• Make-up quizzes will not be given for anything but a written medical excuse (make sure you have a doctor's letter or have an email sent by your physician before you come to see me) or for serious personal problems (please arrange this in advance). "I had to feed my girlfriend's fish" is NOT a serious personal problem. Also, the quizzes will typically involve photos, so I can't go back over the quiz a second time in class for late folks - lecture time is just too valuable. SO, if you have a conflict (or a habit) that will make it difficult for you to be on time for class, you might switch into that "Bowling for Enlightenment" class you've had your eye on.
• EXAM schedules can be changed only for death and dismemberment (under extreme circumstances I might allow "or" to be substituted for "and").
• FINAL EXAM time can only be changed by the Dean (good luck!). You need to have more than two finals in the same day (that's not my rule). And, past experience has demonstrated that.... "My mon just sent me a ticket that's dated the day before the exam" will either be met by rocous laughter and public humiliation by the dean, or will provide you with the "death & dismemberment" excuse discussed above.

NOTE: The following is a working schedule and is subject to modification and correction based on our progress in class. No dates will be changed for exams, papers, etc. However, reading and other outside assignments might move up or back depending on our progress. I will also occasionally post relevant web sites, supplementary resources, announcements about extra help sessions - so please check this syllabus regularly.

Syllabus - Geol 115 Coral Reefs “We feel surprise when travelers tell us of the vast dimensions of the pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender animals”. The Voyage of the Beagle

Sediments, Nutrients & Other Local Factors

etext Ch08; Hubbard (1986); See this sediment-stress article;

etext Ch09; Geister (1977); NY Times Article

First Paper due at 3:00 PM

Easter Island - There's always an exception

Second Paper due at 3:00 PM

FINAL EXAM: Wed, May 13 @ 2:00 PM (60% cumulative; 40% since the seconf exam). The exam will be given in Severance 108.

Final Essay Due on the last Friday of classes (May 8) at 5:00 pm: What will be the most effective ways to help coral reefs recover in the coming decades. Consider a) recent changes documented by monitoring, b) evidence from the recent geologic record, and c) the pros and cons of various strategies mentioned in class. Feel free to consider options that we did not discuss. Keep in mind that while being passionate is important, I'm looking for a workable strategy. Also, your opinion are important but you need to provide a solid, logical defense of it based on the articles you cite. This article may have some information and more references.

** The readings for a particular topic should be at least skimmed before coming to class. I will be assuming that you have a general introduction to the topic from the reading and will be gearing the lecture to 1) clearing up complex topics that you might have had difficulty with, and 2) building on concepts discussed in the readings. If you don't have time to thoroughly read the articles before class- or have difficulty with the style or terminology - at least look the article over and get what you can from the first reading. Then you can go back over it after class and hopefully quickly get through the problematic parts.

COURSE READINGS found on eRes

The following are complete citations for the papers in the syllabus. The (ERES title) is also provided. These are mostly general articles that can be read easily. For more technical examples I provide a little guidance on where to focus.

Aronsen, R.B., and Precht, W.F., 2001a, White band disease and the changing face of Caribbean coral reefs, Hydrobiologia, 460: 25-38.

Aronsen, R.B., and Precht, W.F., 2001b, Applied paleoecology and the crisis on Caribbean coral reefs, Palaios, 16: 195-96.

Aronsen, R.B. and 9 others, Causes of Coral Reef Degradation, Science, v. 302, p. 1502-1504.

Birkeland, C., 1997, Life and Death of Coral Reefs, Chapman & Hall, Introduction: p. 1-12.

Broecker, W.S., and Hemming, S., 2001, Climate swings come into focus, Science, v. 294, p. 2308-2309.

Buddemeier, R.W., and Wade, J.R., 2003, Coral Reef Decline in the Caribbean, Science, v. 302, p. 391-393.

Castro, P., and Huber, M., 1997, M., Marine Biology, McGraw-Hill, p. 276-299.

Connell, J.H., Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs, Science, 199: 1302-1310.

Copper, P., 2001, Evolution, Radiations and Extinctions in Proterozoic to Mid-Paleozoic Reefs, in: Stanley, The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems, Klewer Academic/Plenum Press, p. 89 ­ 112.

Darwin, C., 1842, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, reprinted by the University of Arizona Press, p. 88-104.

Dill, R.F.; Jones, A.T. Kelly, K.; Shinn, E.A., and Steinen, R.P., 1986, Giant subtidal stromatolites forming in normal salinity waters, Nature, 324: 55-58.

DiSalvo, L.H., Randall, J.E., and Cea, A., 1988, Ecological reconnaissance of the Easter Island subtidal marine littoral environment, National Geographic Research, 4: 451-73.

Edmunds, P., and Carpenter, R.C., 2001, Recovery of Diadema antillarum reduces macroalgal cover and increases abundance of juvenile corals on a Caribbean reef, Proc. National Academy of Science, 98: 5067-5071.

Fagerstrom, J.A., 1987, The Evolution of Reef Communities, Wiley Interscience, Ch. 1, p. 3-15.

Fagerstrom, J.A., 1988, A structural model for reef communities, Palaios, 3: 217-220.

Gardner, T.A., and 4 others, 2003, Long-Term Region-Wide Declines in Caribbean Corals, Science, v. 301, p. 958-960.

Geister, Jørn, 1977, The influence of wave exposure on the ecological zonation of Caribean coral reefs, Proc. 3rd Intl. Coral Reef Symp., 1: 24-29.

Grigg, R.W., 2000?, Coral reef evolution: short term instability versus evolutionary stasis, Integrated Coastal Zone Research, 4 p.

Hallock, P., 2001, Coral reefs, carbonate sediments, nutrients and global change, in: Stanley, G., The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems, p. 387 ­ 405.

Harvell, C., Burkholder, J., Calwel, R., Epstein, P., Grimes, D., Hofmann, E., Lipp, E., Osterhaus, A., Porter, J., Smith, G., and Vasta, G., 1999, Emerging marine diseases ­ climate links and anthropogenic factors, Science, v. 285, p. 1505 ­ 1510.

Hubbard, D., 1986, Sedimentation as a control of reef development: St. Croix, U.S.V.I., Coral Reefs, v. 5, p. 117-125.

Hubbard, D.K., 1997, Dynamic processes of coral-reef development, in: Birkeland, C., Life and Death of Coral Reefs, Chapman and Hall Publishers, Ed. 1, 43-67.

Hubbard, D., in press, Reef Biology and Geology – A Matter of Scale, in: Birkeland, C. (ed.), Life and Death of Coral Reefs, Chapmann, Ed. 2.

Hubbard, D.K., 2008a, Depth and species-related patterns of Holocene reef accretion in the Caribbean and western Atlantic: a critical assessment of existing models, in: Swart, P.S. (ed.), IAS Special Pub. No. 40: 1-18.

Hubbard, D.K., 2008b, Coral Ref Complexity in the Face of Increasing Stress, McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology.

Hubbard, D., Gill, I. And Burke, R., 2001, The role of framework in modern reefs abd its implication to ancient systems, in: Stanley (ed.) The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems, Topics in Geobiology, Plenum Press, New York: 351-386.

Hubbard, D., Gill, I., Burke, R. and Morelock, J., 1997, Holocene reef backstepping - southwestern Puerto Rico Shelf: Proc. 8th Intl. Coral Reef Symp., p. 1779-84.

Hubbard, D.K., Burke, R.B., Gill, I.P., Ramirez, W.R., and Sherman, C., 2008, Coral-Reef Geology: Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islnds, in: Reigl and Dodge (eds.) Coral Reefs of the United States, Springer-Verlag, p. 263-302.

Hubbard, D.K., Parsons, K.M., Bythell, J.C. and Walker, N.D., 1991, The effects of Hurricane Hugo on the reefs and associated environments of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands - a preliminary assessment: J. Coastal Research, v. 7, p. 33-48.

Hubbard, D.K., Zankl, H., vanHeerder, I., and Gill, I.P., 2005, Holocene reef development along the northeastern St. Croix shelf, Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, J. Sedimentary Research, 75: 97-113.

Hudson, J., 1981, Growth rates in Montastrea annularis: a record of environmental change in Key Largo coral reef marine sanctuary, Florida, Bull. Mar. Sci., v. 31, p. 444-459.

Hughes, T.P., 1994, Catastrophes, phase shifts and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef, Science, 265: 1547-51.

Hughes, T.P., Bellwood, D.R., and Connolly, S.R., 2002, Biodiversity Hotspots, centres of endemicity and the conserevation of coral reefs, Ecology Letters, v. 5, p. 775-784.

Hughes, T.P. et al, 2003, Climate change, human impacts and the resiliance of coral reefs, Science, 301: 929-933.

Jackson, J.B.C., 1991, Adaptation an diversity of coral reefs, BioScience, 41: 475-82.

Jackson, J.B.C., 1992, Pleistocene perspectives on coral reef community structure, Amer. Zoologist, 32: 719-31.

Jackson, J.B.C., 1997, Reefs since Columbus ­ a Plenary Address, Coral Reefs, v. 16 (suppl), p. S23-S32.

Jackson, J.B.C. and 16 others (2003), Climate Change, human impacts, and the resiliance of coral reefs, Science, 301: 929-933.

Johnson, C., 2001, and Kauffman, E.G., Cretaceous evolution of reef ecosystems: a regional synthesis of the Caribbean tropics, in: Stanley, G.D.,The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems, Klewer Academic/Plenum Press, New York, p. 1-14.

Miller, M. W., Hay, M. E., Miller, S. L., Malone, D., Sotka, E. E., Szmant, A. M., 1999, Effects of nutrients versus herbivores on reef algae: a new method for manipulating nutrients on coral reefs. Limnology and Oceanography 44: 1847-1861.

Muller-Parker, G., and D¹Elia, C., 1997, Interactions between corals and their symbiotic algae, in: Birkeland, C. (ed.), Life and Death of Coral Reefs, Chapmann, p. 96-113.

Neumann, A. and Macintyre, I., 1985, Reef response to sea level rise: keep-up, catch up or give up, Proc. 5th Intl. Coral Reefs Symp., v. 3, p. 105-110.

Ogden, J., 1996, Ecosystem interactions in the tropical coastal seascape, in: Birkeland, C. (ed.), Life and Death of Coral Reefs, Chapmann, p. 288-297.

Pandolfi,J. and 11 others, Global Trajectories of the Long-Term Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems, Science, v. 301, p. 955-958.

Pandolfi, J., and 10 others, 2005, Are U.S. Coral Reefs on the slippery slope to slime?, Science, 307: 1725-26.

Ruddiman, W.F., 2005, How did humans first alter global climate? Scientific American, March, p. 46-53.

Scoffin, T.,1992, Taphonomy of coral reefs ­ a review, Coral Reefs, v. 11, p. 57-77.

Stanley, G.D., 2001, Klewer Academic/Plenum Press, The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems, New York, p. 1-14.

Stanley, G., and Fautin, D.G., 2001, The origins of modern corals, Science, 291: 1913-14.

Stanley, G., and Swart, P.K., 1995, Evolution of the coral-zooxanthellate symbiosis during the Triassic: a geochemical approach, Paleobiology, 21: 179-199.