Dive Into Your Imagination

Bernhard Riegl is not just a biologist, but a geologist as well!  He is a professor at the Nova Southeasters University Oceanographic Center, as well as the associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute.  Bernhard is also a hydrographic surveyor, all while conducting his own research—and he has still found the time to tell us all about it!

What is paleontology, and how does this apply to coral reefs?
Paleontology is the study of ancient organisms and ecosystems. Since coral reefs are essentially big rocks in the ocean, they fossilize very well. Thus, there are many excellent examples of ancient coral reefs in the geological record. Ancient reefs can tell us a lot about the resilience of reef systems in general and how they react to large-scale environmental perturbations – such as ice-ages, meteorite impacts, or climate change in general. Therefore, by studying ancient reefs we can draw many inferences about the future of our present reefs. This is what I spend a lot of time on: forecasting what might happen in the future, and trying to decipher what has happened in the past. Since it is often said that the past is the key to the future, it is not such a bad idea to study it.

What is coral reef bleaching, and what causes it?
Coral reef bleaching is exactly what the name implies: corals, normally green, brown or blue, turn completely white. The natural color of corals is defined by symbiotic algae that live in the coral tissues (thus the greenish hues), which provides corals with much of their energetic requirements. Under combinations of intense heat and radiation, the algae begins to disintegrate, causing the corals to expel the algae from their tissues. This leaves the corals without their life-support system, and if they can’t acquire a new one (i.e. new algae), they will die. With global warming, heat events that cause coral bleaching are predicted to become increasingly more common. This has the potential of causing irreparable damage to coral reefs. Several such bleaching events have occurred in the past decades and caused significant damage to many coral reefs around the world.

Coral reefs are such an important and beautiful aspect of our oceans!  How can we prevent this from happening?
There is little that can be done apart from combating climate change. This means a more responsible use of technology, in particular a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Failing that, significant degradation of coral reefs can be expected.

It seems as though you do a lot of work involving the earth as well as the life that lives on it.  In what ways are geology and biology both important aspects of coral reefs?
Coral reefs are a biogenic sedimentary system…that means living organisms create a geologic structure. Thus, there is really no boundary between the geology and the biology of coral reefs. One begets the other and feeds back. Specifically, geology is important for the initiation of coral reefs. Usually it needs some topography for a reef to begin growing. Then, the ecology of the organisms influences the kind of reef rock that is formed from their skeletons. Different life begets different rock. It is this wonderful interconnectedness that makes studying coral reefs so exciting.

What is the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), and what are its main goals?
The NCRI is dedicated to the study and conservation of coral reefs, most particularly those in the United States. The institute is situated within Nova Southeastern University  in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The NCRI aims to produce management-relevant science that can be used to better the understanding of how to conserve coral reefs.  It also engages in basic research, and scientists from the NCRI are active on coral reefs around the world. Very recently, we received a major grant to build the nation’s first Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystem Studies. This will be a state-of-the art facility dedicated solely to create the best science that can be used for improved management of this valuable marine resource and an international hub of coral reef research. We wish to do our bit to conserve coral reefs – this treasure of the oceans!

As the associate director of the NCRI, what does your job involve?  What research are you currently working on?
My job at the NCRI and Center of Excellence involves supporting the executive director, representing the institute to the outside world, assuring coherence in the research direction, writing proposals and reports, and raising funds. Besides that, I do my own research and teaching. It is a challenging but very satisfying position.  Presently, my research interests center on the prediction of climate change effects on coral reefs. Since we have a fairly good idea on what will change (primarily ocean temperature), and their effects due to past events (like the world-wide bleaching event of 1998), we can combine this knowledge to investigate how reefs may or may not change in the future. This is important to optimize management strategies, like the citing of protected areas (do refuges exist? how big should protected areas be?) or species recovery plans (what is the dynamics of a rare species and which life stages do we best protect to bring its population back?).

What is Hydrographic surveying, and why is it important?
Hydrographic survey refers to charting the oceans. All the depth-charts used by ship captains around the world were produced by hydrographic surveyors. However, charts nowadays not only specify depth, but also sediment types or the biomass of organisms living under the sea. My own work has been describing patterns in marine organisms by either acoustic or optic means. This is important for finding areas bearing the most life, so that impacts can be specifically avoided, or that the boundaries of protected areas can be drawn to include the biologically richest areas.

Dr. Bernhard Riegl is a professor at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center. He is the associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). He received the MSc degree from the University of Vienna (Austria) and the PhD degree from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He also received the habilitation at Karl-Franzens-University Graz (Austria). He is Geology editor of the international scientific journal Coral Reefs, and editor of the book series Coral Reefs of the World.

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