Coral climate clues

Former MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Nathalie Goodkin and Scott Doney of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry department pose with a piece of Bermuda brain coral. Corals accrete seasonal and annual growth layers, similar to tree rings. Because they are slow growing and have long life-spans, corals can provide high resolution temperature records that are well dated and centuries long. Using a 218-year-long temperature record from the coral, Goodkin and colleagues created the first marine-based reconstruction showing the long-term behavior of one of the most important drivers of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)