Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Tracking the Health of Coral Reefs: Live from Belize

Tracking the Health of Coral Reefs: Live from Belize

Aired October 8, 2019

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Smithsonian Science How. My name's Emmanuel.

Maria Murray:

And I'm Maria Murray.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

And we are here at the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Coralyn Whitney Education Center. But we also have our second host, Maggy, over in Belize with some scientists studying coral health. So, I know some of you are wondering, "What's a coral?" We actually have an example of a coral skeleton right here. So, what do you notice on this coral skeleton right here?

Maria Murray:

Well, I notice it's hard, and it's white.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Yeah.

Maria Murray:

And there are lots of little dents in it.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

It's kind of prickly, too. So, when a coral is healthy, an animal called a polyp actually lives inside of it. And polyps are related to jellyfish and sea anemones. But actually, hundreds of thousands of polyps can live in one piece of coral just like this one.

And we know that polyps are living in them when they're not this white color, just like this. We make observations, and see and look at the actual coral specimen to see whether or not it's healthy or not. And this one is a skeleton, so there's no polyps in it.

Speaker 3:

Toss to Maggy.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Awesome. So, right now we're going to toss it over to Maggy in Belize, standing by.

Maggy Benson:

[inaudible 00:02:05] from Carrie Bow Cay for a very special Smithsonian MarineGEO edition. Now, this broadcast is extra special. We are on a teeny tiny little island 15 miles off the coast of central Belize, which is in Central America. And while this location makes it a perfect spot to conduct marine science research, it makes communications a little bit tricky.

So today during our broadcast, the video may be a little bit shaky, but we hope it's all okay. And we're going to do some great interviews with our experts that are here doing the research on the island, and answer as many questions as we can from you during today's program.

Now, we do have a lot of wind and a lot of noise, which is why we're wearing these really funny creatures on our chins. But if you can't hear us, just let us know in the chat and we'll try to adjust. Also, that chat is the same place where you can post questions for us to answer during today's live broadcast about the kind of work that we do here.

Now, we do have our co-host, Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour, and Maria Murray from the MarineGEO program at our home base at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. We're going to go back to them for a moment so that we can get ready to show you a great video of the marine life here at Carrie Bow Cay.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Awesome. So, we're going to have some poll questions during our broadcast, and if you have any questions during our broadcast, be sure to send them in to our Slido. And our first poll question is actually, what do you want to see in our live webcast from Belize? So what would you like to see?

Would you like to see the beach, or underwater cameras? Would you like to see some scuba gear? I want to go scuba diving. Or would you like to see how things work in the science lab? Or maybe you're interested in some of the marine science tools. So you all go ahead, take a moment, and look over these answers on the poll and see, and let us know what you would like to see in Belize. Awesome. So, can you tell us a little bit about MarineGEO? What is that?

Maria Murray:

Sure. So, I'm the program manager of this program called MarineGEO, and we are a Smithsonian-led network of partners around the world who are making observations over time across the different variety of habitats. And we're looking to see how coastal ecosystems work, and how can we keep them working?

So we all participate by taking the same observations. And in that way, we can compare over time to see how things are changing, and how the ecosystems are changing and responding to different environmental changes.

And then the other thing that we can do because we're all doing the same observations, is compare across sites. So our site in Belize can compare to our site in Hawaii and see, are the trends the same or different? And we can understand global patterns, and we can understand local patterns, as well.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

That's super awesome. So, our crew over at Carrie Bow Cay, that's what they're doing right now?

Maria Murray:

Yes.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Well, how about we go over and take a virtual tour of the facility at Carrie Bow Cay right now?

[Video plays with upbeat music. Welcome to Carrie Bow Cay. Photos and time-lapse videos of people working on a small island, people in a lab, people on small boats, people scuba diving, corals, fish.]

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

So I have a question. What happens when coral become unhealthy or when they get sick? What happens to the coral?

Maria Murray:

Well, what we can look at here, we've got some white corals. And normally, corals are very brightly colored and beautiful. And you start to see white patches when they get sick.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Like on the screen over there?

Maria Murray:

Like you see right now. So there's parts that are living and healthy, and parts that are white that are unhealthy.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Awesome. So let's take it back to our crew over at Carrie Bow Cay and see what they got in store for us. Maggy, sending it back to you.

Maggy Benson:

Hey, we hope you enjoyed that introduction to Carrie Bow Cay. We are going to jump in and meet some of our scientists that do the research here on the island. With us now is Dr. Maggie Johnson and Dr. Alex Lowe. They're marine scientists here with the MarineGEO Program. Now, Maggie, can you tell us, how many times have you been to Carrie Bow?

Maggie Johnson:

This is my third time at Carrie Bow Cay.

Maggy Benson:

Yeah, and what kind of scientist are you?

Maggie Johnson:

I'm a marine biologist. And I study coral reefs and how they're affected by what people are doing to them.

Maggy Benson:

And what's your favorite part about Carrie Bow?

Maggie Johnson:

I think my favorite part is how much we get to interact with the wildlife that's here. So when we wake up in the morning, we can see pelicans dive into the water. When we go out snorkeling or scuba diving, we see nurse sharks, we see fish, we see all kinds of really cool critters. We're surrounded by hermit crabs, birds. It's really wonderful to see all of the animals that are around here.

Maggy Benson:

And Alex, how about you? Can you tell our students what your name is, what you do, and something you like about being here doing marine science on Carrie Bow Cay?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, absolutely. I'm Alex Lowe, I'm also a marine biologist, and this is my first time at Carrie Bow Cay, so it's really exciting to share it with all of you. This is so different from where I'm normally working, which is usually in cold water where the visibility's not very good. Sometimes it's like the end of my arm, I can't see. So here the water is really clear. So like Maggie was saying, you can see rays swim by or you can see turtles that are just checking you out while you're working, and that's wild.

Maggy Benson:

It's pretty epic. We had a couple turtle encounters this week actually. So today's program's we're going to be exploring how Alex and Maggie and other marine scientists are monitoring and tracking the health of coral reefs here from the Carrie Bow Cay marine station with the MarineGEO program. And before we do that, we want to be able to give you a little bit of an introduction about what coral is and what a coral reef is. And so, Maggie, can you kick off by telling us, what is coral?

Maggie Johnson:

What is coral? Is coral a plant or an animal?

Maggy Benson:

Good question.

Maggie Johnson:

Good question. So actually, coral's really interesting because it's a combination of both an animal and a plant. So how does it do that?

Maggy Benson:

How does it do that?

Maggie Johnson:

So if you think of a coral as a limestone skeleton-

Maggy Benson:

So that's like a rock.

Maggie Johnson:

That's like a rock, that has a thin layer of living animal skin or tissue on the outside, and that's the animal part. They have these individual little polyps that look a little bit like anemones. So a whole bunch of little anemones stuck together.

Maggy Benson:

And an anemone is in the same group as a jellyfish, right?

Maggie Johnson:

Yeah, like a jellyfish. And if you think of the movie, for example, "Finding Nemo," and you think of the anemones that the clownfish live in. So lots of little anemones living together, it's this one organism. And inside that animal tissue, they have microscopic plants that they actually can use to harvest energy from the sun.

So they can both eat food with the tentacles they have just like a jellyfish or an anemone, and they can also harvest energy from the sun like a plant. So we have all of these corals living together in a coral reef and creating the entire ecosystem.

Maggy Benson:

So are coral reefs important for any other animals?

Maggie Johnson:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Coral reefs support a tremendous amount of biodiversity, and by that we mean, all kinds of different animals and plants living in that same habitat and that same ecosystem. So the corals are basically building the skeleton for the habitat, or the framework.

And in that habitat is where we find all kinds of fish, other types of invertebrates, bivalves, algae, anything you can name it. Lots of biodiversity that are supported by the reef ecosystem itself, including fish that people eat in some places, and shellfish and things that people eat, as well.

Maggy Benson:

So coral reefs are very important for ocean ecosystems-

Maggie Johnson:

Yes, absolutely.

Maggy Benson:

... but also for humans.

Maggie Johnson:

Yes, definitely.

Maggy Benson:

And how are corals doing right now?

Maggie Johnson:

Unfortunately, it depends a little bit where you are in the world. But unfortunately, here in the Caribbean, a lot of coral reefs are not doing so well. And part of the reason is because of things that people are doing to change the environment.

So whether it's local pollution, things like nutrients, plastics going into the water, or if it's more of a global impact. So things like global warming, ocean acidification, things that are happening at a much bigger scale, all of those things are interacting to have really serious negative impacts on coral reefs. And overall, we're seeing a decrease in the amount of coral that we have in our oceans.

Maggy Benson:

So, Miss Drew's class has a really excellent question. They want to know, can corals regenerate or regrow after they've been deteriorated?

Maggie Johnson:

Okay, thanks for that question. And some corals can, yeah. So they can actually, they can fragment, and when a little piece breaks off, they can actually regrow. So that's one of the types, or one of the ways that they can reproduce. They can reproduce either sexually or asexually, and that asexual reproduction is that fragmentation process that we were just talking about.

And that is really interesting because that method can be used for things like coral restoration. So if you can take a whole coral, break off a little piece, and have that new little piece start growing in a different place, then you can use that to help corals grow in some new places.

Maggy Benson:

Now, you do research about how coral reefs grow.

Maggie Johnson:

Yes.

Maggy Benson:

And you use a special tool to be able to study that. And we had a poll that was open for several days on our website that many of you answered. And it looked like most of you wanted to see the kinds of tools, and technologies, and techniques that our scientists use to be able to track and monitor coral reef health. So Maggie, can you show us one of those tools that you use?

Maggie Johnson:

Yes, I can, absolutely. So one of the tools that I use for this project that I'm working on here in Carrie Bow Cay and Belize, and some other places in the Caribbean, is what we refer to as a calcification accretion unit, which stands for CAU. Not like the animal, but like the calcification accretion unit.

Maggy Benson:

What is calcification?

Maggie Johnson:

Calcification is ... So I was talking about that process that corals use to grow and to build their skeleton. That's a process of calcification. And what's important is that it's not just corals that calcify and produce that skeleton, but there are also a bunch of different types of algae that can do that as well. And that's really what I'm interested in.

I'm interested in the types of algae that grow and contribute to the physical growth of the reef habitat. It means our crustose coralline algae. And that's one of the things that I can measure with this tool that I have here, the calcification accretion unit, which is actually very basic. We have two pieces of ... This one right now is covered with critters that-

Maggy Benson:

Let me see if I could get a close up.

Maggie Johnson:

... have grown on this tile over the course of a year. But when it started out, it started out as a piece of gray plastic. So this is 10 by 10 centimeters, gray plastic that you can get from the hardware store. We take them, we sandwich them together. We put these on the reef or in any habitat that you're interested in studying. You leave them out for a year, and you come back and you see who has grown on that tile over the course of the year.

And what I want to know is, how much calcification or how much what we refer to as accretion. So this is what contributes to growth of the habitat itself. How much is occurring in a given reef in a given place? And so, with this tool that I have here, this calcification accretion unit, I leave it out on the reef for a year. And then, at the end of that year, I can look at these tiles and look at all of the critters that have grown over the course of the year.

And then I measure how much calcium carbonate or limestone has accumulated on these tiles, and it tells me a little bit about how that reef itself is growing. And what I can then do is by deploying or using these same units in different places in the Caribbean and different places in the world, I can compare how those reefs are growing in different places and try to understand if they're growing in different ways, why that is. And ultimately, what that means for what's changing coral reefs in the long run.

Maggy Benson:

Well, the students at Sun Grove actually asked a question about how you pick your sites. And they also want to know, do you scuba dive at night?

Maggie Johnson:

Oh, do I scuba dive at night? Okay, first question, how do I pick my sites? Well, this project that I'm working on is actually part of a bigger coral reef monitoring network that's part of a global monitoring program called the Marine Global Earth Observatory or MarineGEO. And I'm using sites that are part of that network because there are a bunch of different researchers who are studying different things at the same sites.

So we can basically combine our data, combine our different areas of expertise to try to answer bigger questions. But how do they pick their sites? So really what we're trying to do is to pick sites that represent the whole area, or what a typical coral reef looks like in this area. And so we'll pick a few different sites that we can use to get an average estimate of those coral reefs.

The second question, do I scuba dive at night? I try not to because, to be honest, I am afraid of scuba diving at night. I don't really like it and I find it to be a little bit scary, though it's not. So I do all of my scuba diving during the day.

Maggy Benson:

Well, we had another question, if you've ever seen a shark? Have you ever had a shark encounter?

Maggie Johnson:

Yes, I have. And actually, I just saw a shark the other day on our dive. It was a nurse shark, which is not a scary kind of shark. Here in the Caribbean, unfortunately we don't see very many sharks because a lot of them have been overfished and have gone away. But on some of the reefs that I worked on in the Pacific, we used to see sharks all the time. Big sharks, little sharks, lots of sharks.

And though I used to also be a little bit afraid of sharks, after spending time with them in the water and learning more about them, I know that they are not as scary as some would lead you to believe. And it's really exciting when we see sharks in the water now.

Maggy Benson:

So you said that you pick your sites based on how coral reefs look. And I think a lot of our students are probably familiar with some pictures of coral reefs and you see a lot of different colors.

Maggie Johnson:

Yes.

Maggy Benson:

Where do those colors come from? This is a great question from Mrs. Holmes's class.

Maggie Johnson:

Excellent question. Okay, so the colors on the coral reef are coming from ... With our corals, we have the animal tissue that produces a pigment itself, but then we also have pigments that are associated with the algae on the coral reefs. So the algae that live inside the corals, which are referred to as zooxanthellae, they produce a pigment.

And then for our algae, they have pigmentation for a variety of other reasons as well. So it's a combination of this natural color that's produced by the corals and by the algae, and the other animals and plants that live there. And how much color we see at different times depends a little bit on what's happening on the reef and how many different things are living there.

Maggy Benson:

So I'm trying to answer as many questions as you can. So you may not see me, but I'm going to ask a couple more. Mrs. Smith's third-graders want to know why you chose to become a marine biologist?

Maggie Johnson:

Why did I choose to be a marine biologist? So the first time I actually went snorkeling was when I was in my early 20s when I was in college. So though I grew up on the coast in a fishing village, I grew up in Maine, which is a very cold place, so I didn't do things like snorkeling. So when I finally went snorkeling and realized that what we see under the water is a completely different world. But then also at the same time realizing that those habitats, those ecosystems are changing really quickly because of things that people are doing to change the environment.

And that's really what sparked my interest in studying coral reefs or even studying marine science, is trying to understand what people are doing to the environment so we can better understand how to either fix those problems or to change them, so that we can preserve some of this amazing natural wildlife and the ecosystems that we have.

Maggy Benson:

Okay, we have another question and this one comes from Lucas from Copper Hill. Thank you so much for joining us, Copper Hill. I know that there are a lot of you out there. We're happy you joined. And Lucas wants to know, does it hurt if you touch a coral reef? Does it hurt your skin?

Maggie Johnson:

Does it hurt your skin? Well, first of all, you should try not to touch the coral reef as possible, because corals are very sensitive animals, and if you touch even just a little bit of the coral, then it can actually cause some damage to the tissue and cause the coral to die.

So we do our best to not touch any of the coral or any of the reef. If you do touch it, then yes, it can hurt a little bit. The skeleton is pretty sharp. There are also lots of other creatures that live down there that have sharp spines, pokey things that if you run into them it does not feel very good.

Alex Lowe:

Stingy things too.

Maggie Johnson:

Yes, and stingy things. Yes.

Maggy Benson:

Ms. Mansear's class from Maine-

Maggie Johnson:

Yay, Maine.

Alex Lowe:

Yeah.

Maggie Johnson:

... wants to know how big are the fish that live in the reef?

Well, again, that depends a little bit on where you are. So the reefs that we're working at around here in Carrie Bow Cay, I would say the average size fish that you see, again, depending on the type of fish. Maybe the biggest one that I've seen so far here is about this big. Reef fish, things like your parrotfish, the ones that are going to be eating algae on the coral reef here where things seem to be doing a little bit better than some other places in the Caribbean, again, are about maybe this size, maybe a foot, a little bit bigger. With a disclaimer that I don't necessarily study fish. So some of our fish biologists would probably be better qualified to answer this question. However, we see fish ranging from about this size down to very tiny little ones that live in cracks and crevices on the reef.

Maggy Benson:

All right, we're going to go and meet our second expert in a moment here. But first, Maggie, you've been putting out these CAUs, the plate type, not the actual animal like she said, for several years here at Carrie Bow. Have you been able to see any differences in that time? Or how long does it take to be able to see changes in coral reefs?

Maggie Johnson:

Right. So some of the changes that we see in coral reefs we see happening in the scale of just a couple of years. So things like, if we see more fleshy seaweeds growing on a coral reef rather than corals, that's something that we can see right away. But with this tool that I'm using, the calcification accretion unit, it actually takes a little bit longer to try to pick up some of those trends of things changing over time.

And so, the part that you don't see is what happens next when I go back to the lab and I process all the tiles, and that's a pretty time-consuming process. So it'll be a little while until I know the answer. But what I'm hoping is that by continuing this same type of research and collecting the same type of data over time and into the future, we're generating a data set that will tell us how things are actually changing.

It'll give you a number and say, this reef is not growing as much as it used to, or it's not growing as much relative to some of the other reefs that I work at in Panama or other places around the world.

Maggy Benson:

Wonderful. All right, we're going to meet our second expert, and I know a lot of you are sending questions. We're going to introduce our expert and then jump back into questions. Dr. Alex Lowe is here. And Alex, can you tell our students how you are studying coastal marine habitats?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, so when marine biologists look at an ecosystem, there's different ways of observing what's happening. And some things are direct interactions, like when a fish eats a crab, you can see that happening and you can tell pretty easily what the effect on the crab is and what the effect on the fish. The crab is done and the fish gets a tasty meal.

But there's also other interactions that are indirect that are harder to see. And those are some of the ones that I'm looking at. And so, while I'm here, I'm measuring the way that the biology, all of the life in the coral reef, is actually changing the environment that it lives in.

And I can do that by measuring oxygen, which is a product of photosynthesis, but that all animals need in order to live. And I can do that by also measuring carbon dioxide, which plants need to photosynthesize, but that all animals release. So there's this cycle of gases in the water that I'm here to measure.

Maggy Benson:

And is this what you use to measure them?

Alex Lowe:

This is part of it. Unfortunately, all of the instruments that I'm using to measure this are out there in the field at our field sites. So you don't get to see the real exciting part, but this is an example of the tools that we use to measure these things that we can't see. So there's a real technological component to this.

And so, it's a cool thing because I'm a marine biologist, more of a traditional sort where I like to count things, and most of the work that I do is with things that you can see. But there's also room for people who are really into technology or into computer programming and things like that in marine science, because they come up with these tools that I can use.

And Maggie also uses a lot of these same tools to balance out our studies. So I have a bunch of data loggers, which are basically an electronic measurement system, like a Fitbit or on your phone, the thing that logs your steps or things like that.

Maggy Benson:

So instead of logging all of my steps during a day, what is this actually taking measurements of? The oxygen and the carbon dioxide?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, so I'm measuring a few different things in the water. So I'm measuring the amount of oxygen that's there. And that's important because the animals that live there need that oxygen. But I'm also measuring pH, which is a measure of how acidic the water is, but that's also related to how much carbon dioxide is in the water. And then I'm measuring temperature and salinity, how salty the water is, too.

Maggy Benson:

And how do these measurements help you understand how reefs in particular are changing over time?

Alex Lowe:

So the big picture question that I'm looking at is the balance of photosynthesis and respiration.

Maggy Benson:

So it's like breathing, and then how plants make energy from the sun.

Alex Lowe:

Exactly. So the plant production of oxygen and animal consumption of oxygen is one way of looking at that. And that's determined by all of the things on the reef. And so, if the types of things on the reef change, we might see a different pattern. And so, by coming out here and measuring that pattern of just environmental change, we can start to figure out what's driving those patterns, but then also see how those patterns change over time.

Maggy Benson:

Wonderful. So we do have a lot of questions here. I'm going to dip off camera and I'm going to give them to Alex and Maggie to answer. So this question comes from Mrs. Doms' and Mrs. Veneziano's classes, and they want to know, how long does it take a coral reef to grow?

Maggie Johnson:

Me?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, do you want to take that one?

Maggie Johnson:

Yeah. So coral reefs actually grow over very, very long periods of time. So let's say, millions of years. The coral reefs that we see out here have been growing for that tremendous amount of time. And the long time that it takes for a coral reef to grow and to create the whole ecosystem and the whole habitat is one of the reasons why these rapid changes to the environment, like increasing temperatures, are so alarming because the coral reefs basically can't keep up with it because it's a pretty slow process that it takes for these reefs to grow over time.

Maggy Benson:

And Miss Crooley's class from New York City wants to know, do all coral turn white when they are sick?

Maggie Johnson:

So when corals turn white, this is a process that we refer to as coral bleaching, which unfortunately is happening a lot more these days because it's a response to increasing temperatures.

So when corals get stressed out, I was talking about those symbiotic zooxanthellae, the algae and tiny little plants that live inside their tissue that they need for energy. When they get stressed out, they sometimes can spit those out. And because those algae have that, those pigments and the colors that you see in the coral, when they spit them out, they're spitting out all of the color that you see, and so they turn white.

Another reason that we can see them when they're getting sick has to do with coral disease, and that also can lead to a little bit of this bleaching and color loss, as well.

Maggy Benson:

So Mr. Giddens's class at Hobbton Middle School, cool science class, they're studying weather and climate. So Alex, how have the tropical storms and hurricanes affected the coral reefs and fish around Carrie Bow or maybe in general? And can your data loggers get data about the change in water temperature and big events like a hurricane when they happen?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, we can definitely see how those hurricanes affect the environment, and they'll kick up a lot of sediment and things like that that are really bad for coral if they get clouded out. But there's also just the direct impacts of waves and wind that can damage the corals. So yeah, you can definitely see the effects of hurricanes on coral.

Maggy Benson:

From Miss Bailey's class, they would like to know which is your favorite species of coral and why? Let's start with Maggie.

Maggie Johnson:

I mean, my favorite species is actually an alga, but I'll stick with coral.

My favorite species of coral is probably going to be Acropora palmata. It's also called the elkhorn coral because the shape of it is a little bit like the horns of an elk. And that one is my favorite because it's a framework builder and we find it in really shallow waters. It can survive some pretty crazy wave activity and conditions.

But it's also one of those corals that's threatened and we don't see as much of it throughout the Caribbean anymore, which is really sad. But it used to completely populate these Caribbean reefs and build these three-dimensional structures and habitats that's the framework of the reef.

Maggy Benson:

How about you, Alex?

Alex Lowe:

They are really beautiful, but I might have to go with a different one. I like the brain corals. They're a big mound with these really crazy patterns of polyps growing on them. They're quite beautiful.

Maggy Benson:

Emily asks, "What can we do to help coral reefs?" And we can group that with Miss Mansear's class question, does global warming impact coral reefs?

Maggie Johnson:

You want to take on this? Should I?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, global warming definitely impacts coral reefs around the world. And we see that in the increase in frequency of bleaching events. But there are also local things that happen. So just the impacts of boating and tourism, people hit the reefs and damage reefs. Fishing can damage reefs. So there's a lot of things that can be done on the local scale. Are there other things that you can think of?

Maggie Johnson:

Yeah, I mean, if you're thinking about what you as a person can do to help our coral reefs, generally it's anything that we can do to improve our impact on the environment. So things like reducing how much carbon dioxide you use, so fossil fuels. Reducing fossil fuel consumption, riding your bike, recycling things, preventing any sort of local pollution. So nutrient pollution can be really bad for coral reefs, so working at a local scale to try to prevent that as well. And using products in the home environment that are good for the environment, environmentally friendly, is also a really good practice to get into.

Maggy Benson:

This one's from Ms. Howard's fourth and fifth graders. They'd like to know, does coral decompose?

Maggie Johnson:

Good question. The coral tissue that's on the skeleton does decompose, so the animal part decomposes when it dies. But the framework, that skeleton, typically stays in place. So that doesn't decompose. However, over long periods of time, that limestone skeleton can break down and contribute to the sediments and all of the stuff that we see on the seafloor.

Alex Lowe:

Like those white sand beaches that we love.

Maggie Johnson:

Yes.

Maggy Benson:

All right. So this question comes from Miss Sharon's class. What is the coral's lifespan and how large can they grow?

Maggie Johnson:

An individual coral doesn't necessarily live for a million years, but corals can live for hundreds of years. And there are some studies where scientists will actually core into these giant corals, and they can go back and trace-

Maggy Benson:

So drill a hole.

Maggie Johnson:

Drill a hole, much like ... So if you think of a tree and people counting tree rings to see how old a tree is, you can do the same thing with some of these big corals. Some corals can grow to be absolutely huge, like the size of a very large Volkswagen Beetle or a very small, tiny little house. They can grow huge. But it depends a little bit on the type of coral and then where you are, if you're in the Pacific or the Caribbean.

Maggy Benson:

How big is the biggest coral that each of you have seen?

Maggie Johnson:

The biggest coral that I've seen was in the Pacific and it was the size of ... I mean, it was definitely bigger than a small car. It was the size of a small shed on a house. Huge. Huge, old, beautiful, amazing coral.

Maggy Benson:

How about you, Alex?

Alex Lowe:

I probably haven't seen as many big corals, but there's definitely ones where I had to swim all the way around it. And that was pretty cool to be close to something that big.

Maggy Benson:

Willow would like to know, "What's the craziest thing each of you have ever seen underwater?"

Alex Lowe:

Oh, Willow, that is an excellent question. I think the craziest thing that I've ever seen, I was snorkeling one day and I was following a moray eel. And I saw another eel come by and they were both hunting, and one of the moray eels ate the other eel.

Maggy Benson:

What?

Maggie Johnson:

That's crazy.

Alex Lowe:

Mind blown. That was like ...

Maggie Johnson:

That's pretty crazy. I have seen a few dolphins while I've been underwater, which was really exciting because we don't always see them very much. When we're down in the water, dolphins can be pretty skittish. So maybe it's not all that crazy, but that was definitely the coolest thing that I've seen.

Maggy Benson:

Sun Grove would like to know, how long do you stay on this island and how early do you have to wake up?

Maggie Johnson:

People stay here from a range of one to maybe four weeks. But for us, we're here for one week trying to get in all the rest of our work, and the other part of our team will be here for another week. And how early do we wake up?

Alex Lowe:

Today, I woke up at 5:00 a.m.

Maggie Johnson:

Oh, I did not.

Alex Lowe:

And I caught the sunrise and a beautiful rainbow. I don't usually get up that early, but I'm really glad I was up today.

Maggy Benson:

Miss Servert's class from Sand Creek Middle School. Thanks for joining us, guys. What is your background and how did you get to study coral reef health in Belize?

Maggie Johnson:

So my background is, when I went to college, I studied biology. I thought I wanted to go to medical school at the time. But then I took a field biology class where I went to the Caribbean and that's when I snorkeled for the first time. And after that, I started taking classes to learn a little bit more about the tropics. And from there, I went into grad school.

So I got a master's, and from there I went to get a Ph.D. But along that process, I did a bunch of different internships, so different little jobs, different places, trying out different things. And that gave me the opportunity to explore some of these coral reefs, and also to basically get paid to do it because it was an internship. It was a job. And that's really what's given me the opportunity to go to all of these different places and see these different things. It's been through a combination of working and going to school.

Alex Lowe:

I grew up in the desert. And so, I wanted to get away from that when I went to school. So I went to college in Washington State and studied fisheries, so how people interact with fish populations. And that kept going. I got some interesting jobs that weren't exactly what I planned to do, but opened up really cool opportunities and exposed me to scientists that, I thought they were the coolest people I've ever met and what they were doing looked like the most fun thing ever. And so, I wanted to do that.

Maggy Benson:

It is the most fun thing ever. So we have a poll open and our students have responded. And most students, we gave them several choices of what they want to study. And the number one, most students want to study coral disease, followed by coral reef plants and animals. So we are wrapping up, but before we go, can you tell our students a little bit of advice if they want to study these things?

Maggie Johnson:

Well, what I would first say is that, if you're interested in science and asking questions about nature, that is an opportunity that's open to pretty much everyone. And so, you can go to school, study biology, find the things that you think are interesting and fascinating. Talk to people, talk to scientists, and they can help guide you along the way, as well.

Maggy Benson:

How about you, Alex?

Alex Lowe:

Yeah, I think we live in a world now where you can reach out and contact people in a way that you haven't been able to before. So I didn't know what a Ph.D. was growing up.

Maggie Johnson:

Yeah, I didn't either.

Alex Lowe:

I didn't-

Maggy Benson:

What is a Ph.D.?

Alex Lowe:

That's the product of a lot of years of research and study that gives you the doctor designation. But I think the information that's available to people now can really change the direction of your life. And so, spend some time on the Internet, look people up, see what people are doing.

Maggy Benson:

Wonderful. Students, thank you so much for joining us live from Belize. If you have more questions that went unanswered, please email them to sciencehow@si.edu. Our wonderful experts have agreed to answer as many as they can and will send a response back to you.

We're so happy that you joined us today. You can also see what we're doing this week if you follow the SIMarineGEO handle on Twitter. So we'll see you next time on Smithsonian Science How. Thanks for tuning in.

Maggie Johnson:

Thanks.

Alex Lowe:

Bye.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Awesome. Thank you so much to Maggie and all of those scientists and the whole crew out there in Carrie Bow Cay. I'm Emmanuel, and this is-

Maria Murray:

Maria.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Thank you all so much. If you want to join our remote crew for Science How?, be sure to email us at sciencehow at-

Maria Murray:

Si.edu.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour:

Thank you. Thank you all so much. See you next time on November 14th for lichens, with special guest scientist, Manuela Dal Forno. Bye.

Maria Murray:

Bye.

 

Archived Webcast

This program was broadcast October 8, 2019, from Carrie Bow Cay off the coast of Belize. Watch a recording in the player above or by using the link below.

Description

Want to inspire your students about a future career in science? Transport them to a marine-research station, where they can learn what it’s like to be a scientist working in the field. These videos are recordings of Smithsonian Science How shows broadcasted from the Smithsonian’s Carrie Bow Cay Field Station, connecting students in real-time to scientists working from a remote, tropical island located off the coast of Belize, Central America (Google Map).

In the videos, Smithsonian marine scientists introduce students to coral and coral reefs, and the ways they monitor coral reef ecosystems, their health, and how they respond to changes in the environment. They show students the tools that they use to conduct their underwater observations and research, including basic scuba gear. 

  • 2pm Show: How Coral Reefs Grow and Respond to a Changing Environment

    Scientists Maggie Johnson and Alex Lowe explain how stony corals grow and how their growth is impacted by the environment in which they live and create. Maggie and Alex show students the tools they use to study coral reef habitats and share what they’ve discovered.
  • 3:30pm Show: Tracking Coral Health & Disease

    Scientists Leah Harper and Scott Jones introduce students to coral, coral reefs, and the tools they use to monitor coral reef ecosystems and their health. They share how they identify and track coral disease. 

Meet the Scientists and Learn About Their Work

These shows were made possible by the Smithsonian’s Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO), which is a long-term, worldwide research program focused on understanding coastal marine life and its role in maintaining resilient ecosystems around the world. 

Key Crosscutting Concepts (NGSS)

Patterns: 

  • Patterns can be used as evidence to support an explanation (4-ESS1-1)
  • Scientists will share patterns they’ve discovered, which are used as evidence to support various explanations 
  • System and System Models: A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions (3-LS4-4, 5-LS2-1, 5-ESS2-1)

Connections to Nature and Science:

  • Science assumes consistent patterns in natural systems (3-LS4-1)
  • Science affects everyday life (3-ESS3-1, 4-PS3-4)
  • Most scientists and engineers work in teams (4-PS3-4)
  • Science assumes consistent patterns in natural systems (4-ESS1-1)
  • Science findings are limited to questions that can be answered with empirical evidence (5-ESS3-1)

Teaching Resources

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

3rd Grade

Earth Science

Earth and Human Activity & Human Impacts on Earth Systems

•    ESS3.C Societal activities have had major effects on the land, ocean, atmosphere, and even outer space. Students describe things society does to protect Earth’s resources and environments.

4th Grade

Life Science

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics; Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

  • 4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Earth Science

Earth and Human Activity & Human Impacts on Earth Systems

  • ESS3.C Societal activities have had major effects on the land, ocean, atmosphere, and even outer space. Students describe things society does to protect Earth’s resources and environments.
  • 4-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment

5th Grade

Life Science

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics; Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

  • 5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment

Earth Science

Earth and Human Activity & Human Impacts on Earth Systems

  • ESS3.C Societal activities have had major effects on the land, ocean, atmosphere, and even outer space. Students describe things society does to protect Earth’s resources and environments.
  • 5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment

6-8th Grade

Life Science

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics; Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

  • MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems

Earth Science

Earth and Human Activity & Human Impacts on Earth Systems

  • ESS3.C Human activities have altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging it, although changes to environments can have different impacts for different living things. Activities and technologies can be engineered t’s impacts on Earth.

 

Resource Type
Videos and Webcasts
Grade Level
3-5, 6-8
Learning Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
Topics
Earth Science, Life Science