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Way-Out Reef

October 2, 2015

Researchers in WHOI scientist Anne Cohen’s lab are investigating potential impacts on corals from changing ocean conditions, including warmer and more acidic seawater. As part of the work, Hannah Barkley, a Ph.D. student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, helped install a network of sensors that spans 12 coral reefs in Palau. At the farthest reach of the network is Helen Reef, a less than 1-square-kilometer atoll about 600 kilometers south of Palau’s main islands. From one end of the island, you can see the ocean off the other end. Its only inhabitants are three rangers, who live in huts, and thousands of nesting seabirds.(Photo by Hannah Barkley, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)