A team of scientists has discovered a large coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon River , at its confluence with the Atlantic Ocean . The exact location of the coral system is situated between the French Guiana border with the Brazilian state of Amapá . The team of researchers, led by Rodrigo Moura, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, has explored this little-known region so far in three oceanographic vessels with the participation and collaboration of the aforementioned Brazilian university and Georgia in the United States. The reef occupies an area of 9,300 square kilometers – similar to the area of the Community of Navarra – at depths of between 30 and 120 meters in an area of turbid waters with little visibility.
During the expedition, the experts located a very large area of coralline algae with high levels of suspended particles, different from those found in coral reefs that usually form in tropical regions . The characteristics of this system are not only different from those known so far, but its state of conservation offers information on the mechanisms that allow coral ecosystems to respond to the acceleration of global warming . In the study, the authors find that the development of the industry on the banks and in the course of the Amazon, where large oil drilling has been carried out near the corals, poses an obvious danger to this unique reef system.
The finding is important given that the corals responsible for building reefs are currently among the species most threatened by climate change and other human-induced stressors. In other recently published research, Professor John Pandolfi from the University of Queensland (Australia) states that fast-growing corals that are Acropora branching or staghorn reef-building corals are often implicated in the growth of modern reefs. However, even though they have existed for about 50 million years, these corals are dwindling or even disappearing around the world around the world.
Caption: Satellite view of the mouth of the Amazon
