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Where in the world are our strongest corals?
Seventy Islands, Palau - One of severalRock Islands chains in PalauThe Palauan archipelago is a composed of more than 250 islands. Among these are about 200 known as the Rock Islands, due their tough...
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Helen Reef
Satellite View of Helen ReefWe just completed our work at Helen Reef, the southernmost of Palau's reefs. Helen Reef is rather isolated from any large mainland, inside the atoll is a small island less...
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Helen Island, Population: 3
Welcome Sign at HelenPhoto credit: M. KaplanTurtle Nursery at Helen ReefPhoto credit: M. KaplanDuring our stay at Helen Reef, we were able to make a quick pit stop on the Helen island the only land for...
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Sampling the Deep Blue Sea
Kathryn draws water from the Niskin bottle to measure nutrientsPhoto credit: H. Rivera Winch used to lower and raise Niskin fordeeper sample sitesPhoto credit: H. Rivera One of our aims for this...
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Close Encounters of a Finned Kind
Dolphins race our boatCaptured by P. LohmannFishing is banned in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), allowing fish populations to recover from previous exploits and providing a shelter in which populations...
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Rock Island Paradise
Mushroom-shaped rock due to erosionPhoto credit: H. RiveraI've mentioned Palau's Rock Islands quite a few times now - how unique they are in that they harbor amazing reefs despite having low pH...
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Back to the field!
View from PICRC dock during a lunchtime breakWe are back in Palau for our 2015 expedition! Tom and Pat just arrived in Palau, while Katie, Andrea, and Bill are arriving tomorrow night.I think everyone...
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The expedition to... find scaffolding
Benchtop of programmedinstruments, ready for deployment!Three days into our expedition, everything is right on track and spirits are high! But we aren't exactly on the tropical paradise trip that you...
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A delicate balance
Severe bioerosion of a living coral colony inPanama. In this example, the living coral (which is green) is infested by bioerodingbivalves (the key-shaped holes in the skeleton). Photo credit: Hannah...
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Coral time-stamps
The clock started ticking on April 27, 2013. That's when Hannah and I put "time-stamps" on twenty coral colonies around Palau.Staining a coral colony in Palau in April, 2013. Photo credit: Hannah...
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The first of its kind
Today’s guest blogger is Josh Sokol, science-journalist-in-training at the MIT Graduate Program for Science Writing. Josh is traveling with the Cohen lab in Palau to report on their research.It’s about...
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Carbon Counting
I like to think of carbon as the currency of coral reefs. The bank account of (inorganic) carbon in seawater is adjusted by a number of different processes - respiration and CaCO3 dissolution make...
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Reflecting on the past three weeks
While driving out to the transect on our last day of water sampling, I looked west and rain showered from an ominous cloud covering the sky. It seemed as though we would be spending the day drenched in...
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