Coral Reefs Create Clouds To Control The Climate

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<b>Coral Reefs Create Clouds To Control The Climate</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />When the temperature soars, coral reefs might cool off by creating their own clouds. <br /><br />Research from the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast shows that corals are packed full of the chemical dimethyl sulphide, or DMS. When released into the atmosphere, DMS helps clouds to form, which could have a large impact on the local climate.<br /><br />In the air, DMS is transformed into an aerosol of tiny particles on which water vapour can condense to form clouds. This sulphur compound is also produced in large amounts by marine algae and gives the ocean its distinctive smell. Algae play a vital part in regulating Earth's climate, but no one had looked at whether coral reefs might have a similar role.<br /><br />Graham Jones of the Southern Cross University in Lismore, Australia, and colleagues measured DMS concentrations in corals in the Great Barrier Reef and its surrounding water. They found that the mucus exuded by the coral contained the highest concentrations of DMS so far recorded from any organism. A layer rich in DMS formed at the sea surface above the reef, where it was picked up by the wind. <br /><br />"Although globally the emission of DMS from the Great Barrier Reef is not huge, on a regional basis it is very significant," says Jones. <br /><br />Missing link<br /><br />The big question now is what effect this will have on the climate. "The coral is a concentrated source of DMS, which could affect the formation of clouds in that region," says Peter Liss, an environmental chemist and DMS expert at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. <br /><br />The Australian team plans to study the impact of the reef and other corals on local climate over the next few years. "We don't know how the DMS emitted by the coral relates to cloudiness and the radiative climate over the reef," says Jones. "That's the miss

 

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