Unique coral reef system discovered at the mouth of the Amazon

APRIL 23, 2016

by Chuck Bednar

With tales of widespread bleaching and the ill effects of climate change dominating headlines, there’s finally some good news involving coral reefs : researchers have discovered an entirely new, previously undetected reef system at the mouth of the Amazon River.

The unexpected find, which is detailed in the April 22 edition of the journal Science Advances, was rather unexpected because larger rivers that flow into the oceans in areas known as plumes often have gaps in the reef distribution along their tropical shelves, the authors explained.

However, a team of scientists from the University of Georgia and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro found a broad reef ecosystem hidden beneath a plume of river water, which according to Discovery News is what kept it hidden for so long. They discovered the reef through a process known as multibeam acoustic sampling, and collected samples to confirm their find.

“There were some studies back in the 1950s that suggested the presence of reefs,” senior author Fabiano Thompson, an oceanographer and professor of marine biology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told the site, “but none pinpointed the reef bodies, dimensions, locations, and compositions.”

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