Saturday, 18 January 2014

Amazing time-lapse photography reveals secret life of corals


  • A scientist at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute documented corals for five years to reveal their underwater activities

  • Pim Bongaerts captured the communication, movement and violent battles of the slow-moving creatures


By

Sarah Griffiths



PUBLISHED:


17:48, 17 January 2014


|
UPDATED:


20:17, 17 January 2014



Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is home to fascinating creatures, but few divers get to see the secret movements of corals.


Now one scientist has used time-lapse photography to capture the mysterious movement of corals beneath the waves.


Pim Bongaerts’ photographic labour of love reveals the life cycle of a coral reef, which happens too slowly for humans to see.


Scroll down for video


 


A mushroom coral flipping over took six hours to film and was sped up 900 times for the video, which captures the mysterious movements of corals beneath the waves



THE GREAT BARRIER REEF


The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.


It covers an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 square miles).


The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.


It can be seen from outer space and is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms.


The reef structure is composed of billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps.


The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority considers the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef to be climate change, causing ocean warming which increases coral bleaching.


Mass coral bleaching events due to elevated ocean temperatures occurred in the summers of 1998, 2002 and 2006 and coral bleaching is expected to become an annual occurrence.


The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism and is thought to be especially sensitive to slight fluctuations – and a gradual warming – in sea temperatures.


Dr Bongaerts, of University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, documented the colourful coral creatures over a five year period.


He has captured the communication, movement and even violent battles that the slow-moving creatures become involved in, the BBC reported.


The location of the photographic shoot

was Heron Island and a short clip of a planting coral removing sediment

took 11.5 hours to film and was sped up 1,800 times in a

video displayed on his website.


The

intriguing sight of a mushroom coral flipping itself over is included

in the video and took six hours to film, before being sped up 900 times,

while footage of starfish and nudibranch coral moving took two hours before it was

sped up 300 times.


 


Pim Bongaerts’ photographic labour of love reveals the life cycle of a coral reef and movement of the strange creatures, which happens too slowly for humans to see



 





Scientists have previously warned that the world’s largest coral reef – under threat from Australia’s surging coal and gas shipments, climate change and a destructive starfish – is declining faster than ever and coral cover could fall to just 5 per cent in the next decade.


Researchers from the Australian

Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in the north eastern city of

Townsville, said Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral

in little more than a generation  and the pace of damage has picked up

since 2006.


Globally,

reefs are being assailed by myriad threats, particularly rising sea

temperatures, increased ocean acidity and more powerful storms, but the

threat to the Great Barrier Reef is even more pronounced, the AIMS study

found.


 


Dr Bongaerts documented the colourful coral

creatures over a five year period and captured the communication, movement and even violent battles between the slow-moving creatures


AIMS scientists studied data from more than 200 individual reefs off the Queensland coast covering the period 1985-2012. 


They found cyclone damage caused

nearly half the losses, crown-of-thorns starfish more than 40 per cent

and coral bleaching from spikes in sea temperatures 10 per cent.


The starfish are native and prey on the reefs, but plagues are occurring much more frequently.


Ordinarily,

reefs can recover within 10 to 20 years from storms, bleachings or

starfish attacks but climate change impacts slow this down.


Rising

ocean acidification caused by seas absorbing more carbon dioxide is

disrupting the ability of corals to build their calcium carbonate

structures and hotter seas stress corals still further.


 


Here, a mesophotic coral reef at a depth of 40 metres was filmed for one month before being sped up 360,000 times








Comments (8)


Share what you think



The comments below have not been moderated.






Naomi Wattz,


miami, United States,


4 hours ago


amazing I didnt know these things moved.





grumpygramma,


Belingham,


5 hours ago


So gorgeous!! I had no idea…I thought they were hard and solid





Julia H,


Calgary, Canada,


21 hours ago


It really is beautiful to see like that.






Steve in Texas,


Roscoe, United States,


23 hours ago


That 2nd frame ….. Sea Cucumbers …… Mmmmmmmm …. yummy .. !






Joe,


Nirvana, United States,


23 hours ago


All fake everyone knows Gore-Bull Warming killed all the coral… melted all the ice, killed all the polar bears





chemical angel,


Leigh,


1 day ago


Isn’t nature brilliant?





ukiceman,


Prestatyn, United Kingdom,


1 day ago


cant wait or the repeat on bbc 1





mot123,


townsville, Australia,


1 day ago


love it when they do research year after year after year after year one would think they have learned all there is to know about the reef…but no on with the show…



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Article source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/10579029/Andy-Warhol-William-Burroughs-David-Lynch-Photographers-Gallery-review.html


Amazing time-lapse photography reveals secret life of corals
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