Source: PhysOrg.com
July 30, 2010

Groundbreaking preliminary findings from the Great Barrier Reef show climate change has not been smooth and continuous but may have been characterised by several rapid changes.

A team of international scientists, including Dr Jody Webster from the University of Sydney, have taken part in a groundbreaking voyage to the Great Barrier Reef between February to April this year to acquire fossil coral reef cores from the edge of the continental shelf.

The team has discovered the fossil reef that grew from the last Ice Age when global sea levels and climate were very different from today. The team, led by co-chief scientists Dr Webster, and Dr Yusuke Yokoyama from the University of Tokyo, have now begun investigating these cores and their unique archive of past sea-level and climate change and how the Great Barrier Reef responded to these major environmental changes.

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