Moore Foundation grantee Patricia Yager and her colleagues have discovered a vibrant new coral reef system in the most unexpected of locations: at the mouth of the Amazon River.
The new reef system spans 600 miles along the ocean floor, stretching from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhao state along the edge of South America’s continental shelf. The finding is surprising because large rivers normally create gaps in reef distribution due to unfavorable conditions such as salinity, pH and light penetration.
Yager is funded through the foundation's Marine Microbiology Initiative to develop a systems-level understanding of microbially mediated elemental cycles along the lower reach of the Amazon River and its marine plume.
These findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances, and illustrate the wonder of scientific discovery and its ability to lend new insight in unexpected ways.
Read the University of Georgia press release here and additional news coverage of this exciting discovery below:
Scientists discover coral reef near the mouth of the Amazon River (Los Angeles Times)
Reef larger than Delaware found at the mouth of the Amazon River (NPR)
Message sent
Thank you for sharing.