MSc (Research) in Geography & Earth Sciences: Breathing reefs: ocean-atmosphere carbon exchange of tropical coral reefs

Corals are ecosystem engineers that create morphologically complex reefs, supporting some of the most diverse ecosystems in the oceans. Importantly, corals are not the only engineers within reef systems - fleshy and coralline algae, sponges and seagrasses all contribute to the reef structure and help support coral reef biodiversity. This complex community, from single-celled microbes and algae to predatory animals, results in an intricate web of metabolic processes, energy transfer and elemental cycling. All these processes rely on the uptake or release of CO2 from the surrounding water column, which subsequently affects the rate of CO2 exchange at the air-sea surface overlying the reef and therefore impacting local and regional atmospheric CO2 levels. This project will quantify patterns in air-sea CO2 gas exchange driven by coral reef ecosystems, both now and under projected climate change. The student will gain expertise in state-of-the-art approaches to CO2 gas flux analysis and will conduct climate change aquarium experiments, with the potential opportunity to validate laboratory results in the Egyptian Red Sea.