Morgan I. Chakraborty, Arash Sharifi, Francesca Benzoni, François L. H. Tissot , Ali Pourmand, Marco Taviani (CNR-ISMAR), Bolton Howes , Peter K. Swart, Choajin Lu, Mattie Rodrigue, and Sam J. Purkis
“Deep-water corals indicate the Red Sea survived
the last glacial lowstand“
PNAS – 122 (8) e2415559122 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2415559122
Cover image: Pictured is an OceanX submersible collecting deep-water corals in the Red Sea. Morgan I. Chakraborty et al. sampled 26 deep-water coral sites in the Red Sea and used uranium-thorium dating to examine periods of coral growth. The Red Sea is thought to have become uninhabitable during the last glacial maximum due to a drop in sea level that prevented seawater exchange with the Indian Ocean. However, the authors found evidence of coral growth during and after the last glacial maximum. According to the authors, the findings suggest that the Red Sea ecosystem largely survived a drop in sea level at the last glacial maximum. See the article by Chakraborty et al. e2415559122. Image credit: OceanX.
