For more than 10 years, Dr. Philip Whitford has traveled with 6-12 Capital undergrads to Cozumel, Mexico, to study coral and sponge life off the coast.
While the reefs have suffered damage from natural and manmade forces over the years, nothing compared to the devastation caused by Hurricane Wilma in 2006. That one storm created a 50 percent loss of the reefs at their deepest points to a 95 percent destruction of the near-shore reefs and virtually wiped out 8 years of research.
But rather than give up, Whitford took advantage of the situation to shift the focus of his research to documenting the recovery of the reef.
"Coral research has begun only in the last 15 years or so, and there is very little documentation of devastation. Documenting the rate of recovery helps build appreciation for how resilient the reefs are and can help determine how long before the reef will be economically beneficial to the region again. If we know how long it takes to come back, then we can determine how long the economic impact is going to last."
Coral reefs play an important role in ecological studies. As Whitford put it, "Most research is done on healthy reefs. We look at the health of the reefs as a good indictor of the status of global warming and pollution. Coral is sort of the canary in the mine – it can't tolerate more than a degree or two centigrade in change of average water temp or silt coming into the land. The health of the reef is a good indication of overall health of the world."
Dr. Whitford heads back to Cozumel in January, this time with roughly 15 students in tow – five for research and 10 for reef biology introduction - to see what progress is taking place. Read more about Dr. Whitford and his students in the Columbus Dispatch.