摘要
大量研究证实,对环境变化非常敏感的珊瑚能够记录越来越多的环境信息。由于浮游生物过度繁殖而引发的赤潮对珊瑚礁生态系统有明显的影响。赤潮爆发时,赤潮区海水pH值和铁、锰含量异常;赤潮生物覆盖海水表面,阻碍珊瑚共生藻的光合作用;后期赤潮生物大量死亡,还会大量消耗溶解氧,排放有害化学物质,导致珊瑚死亡。理论上讲,幸存的珊瑚在其骨骼中能够记录这些环境异常过程。通过采用硼同位素法、铁锰微量元素法和生长特征观测法等方法,研究珊瑚骨骼的化学特征,从而可能揭示过去赤潮发生的规律。目前,关于珊瑚礁对赤潮的生态响应和记录研究仍处于探索之中,如果能够结合赤潮的机理、特征、生态影响以及珊瑚本身的特性而成功实现这项研究的话,则不仅对珊瑚礁环境记录研究领域是个重要的补充,而且还提供了一把记录赤潮的新钥匙。
Being sensitive to surrounding environmental changes, reef corals have proved to be capable of recording such environmental information as temperature, salinity and pollution. Red tides, visible ‘ blooms＇ of phytoplankton, badly affect reef ecosystems. During red tides, alkalinity （or pH value）, dissolved oxygen and concentration of iron and manganese in sea water are abnormal. Furthermore, the algae accumulate in large quantities to discolor the water, shade submerged reefs, block the photosynthesis of zooxanthellae, the symbiosis algae in polyps, and cause oxygen depletion when dead algae begin to decompose. The changes may lead to the extensive death of reef. In theory, the reefs that survive the red tides can record these changes in water. We can analyze the geochemical changes in coral skeletons such as boron isotope and trace elements like iron and manganese and probe into characteristics of corals so as to investigate the historical red tides. At present, the researchers on the response of coral reef to red tides and the record of historical red tides in reef corals are only in the beginning stages. The combination of the mechanism, characteristics and ecological impacts of the red tides with the characteristics of corals can not only help the study of coral reef environment record but also open a new way to record historical red tides.
出处
《岩石矿物学杂志》
CAS
CSCD
北大核心
2006年第6期523-529,共7页
Acta Petrologica et Mineralogica
基金
中国科学院创新项目(KZCX3-SW-220)
国家自然科学基金重点项目(40231009)
科技部重大基础研究前期专项(2002CCA02700)
关键词
珊瑚礁
赤潮
生态响应
记录
coral reef
red tide
ecological response
record
