Drill Here

MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Hannah Barkley (right) points WHOI diver Pat Lohmann to a Porites coral for coring. The core, a biopsy of the coral’s skeleton, contains valuable information about the coral’s response to stressful conditions such as ocean warming and acidification. Aboard R/V Alucia, the team from WHOI scientist Anne Cohen’s lab traveled 862 nautical miles across the Palauan archipelago, where strong gradients in temperature and pH provide a natural laboratory to understand how coral reefs can thrive in seemingly adverse conditions. Funding for the cruise was provided by the Dalio Foundation, Inc.(Photo by Max Kaplan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)