HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

CORAL BLEACHING AND GLOBAL WARMING: THE VERDICT IS IN

Coral reefs are among the most beautiful and diverse environments in the world, but these special habitats are being threatened by both natural and man-made events. One of the major threats is coral bleaching. Reef corals respond to environmental stress by losing their symbiotic algae, thus appearing ÒbleachedÓ. The principal environmental stress that triggers coral bleaching is elevated seawater temperatures. In this talk, Dr. Clay Cook will review the unique features of coral biology that are involved in the formation and maintenance of coral reefs. He will then discuss why bleaching is a serious threat to reef corals, how global warming is related to the increasing incidence of bleaching events, and why reef corals in particular are so sensitive to elevated temperatures.

Speaker Background
Dr. Clay Cook is a Senior Scientist at Harbor Branch and heads the Symbiosis and Coral Biology program in the Division of Marine Science. He received his B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Rutgers University in 1965, and his Ph. D. (Zoology) from Duke in 1970. While a graduate student at Duke, he spent the summer of 1967 taking an NSF-sponsored course on the biology of reef corals at the Hawaii Institute of Biology and became enamored with the biology of animals such as corals that have plant cells (algae) growing in their tissues. He has studied this phenomenon (animal-algal symbiosis) ever since. Clay notes that, ÒThere is real fascination in a topic which has its roots in cell and molecular biology and has such broad implications as the ecology and formation of coral reefs.Ó

He has held academic positions at the University of Georgia, the University of Western Ontario, and Ohio State University and research positions at UCLA and Northeastern University. Prior to coming to HBOI in 1993, he was a Research Scientist for ten years at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. In addition to over 60 published papers, he has edited or co-authored three books on symbiosis and marine biology.

Details
Cook's talk, "Coral Bleaching and Global Warming: The Verdict Is In," will be held in the auditorium of the Johnson Education Center on the Harbor Branch Campus, 5600 US 1 North, Ft. Pierce, Fla. at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15. All talks in the Ocean Science Lecture Series are free to the public and followed by a free reception. A cash bar is available before and after the 7:00 p.m. talk. Please direct press inquiries to Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu. General questions about the series should be directed to the Marine Education Office at 772-465-2400 ext. 506 or education@hboi.edu.

Remaining Talks in the 2006 Harbor Branch Ocean Science Lecture Series

February 22 - Amy Wright - Natural Products Investigators: Finding and Understanding A Killer

March 1 - Greg Bossart - The Indian River Lagoon Health Assessment 2003-2005: So What's Ailing Flipper?

March 8 - John Scarpa - The Sensible Sea Squirt

March 15 - Tammy Frank - Vision in the Deep Sea: A Crab's Eye View

March 22 - Tracey Sutton - Deep-sea Denizens of the Mid Atlantic Ridge

March 29 - Peter McCarthy - An Ocean of Microbes: Microbial Influences on Planetary and Human Health

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.