Chris Langdon, Ph.D.
Assistant Director,
National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE)
Associate Professor, Marine
Biology and Fisheries
email:
[email protected]
His research focuses
on the physiological ecology of corals with an emphasis on how
corals respond to environmental stress, in particular, the stress of
globally rising temperature and CO2. Over fishing,
sedimentation and eutrophication are thought to have been
responsible for most the declines in coral abundance and phase shift
to macroalgal dominance that have been observed in the last 100-200
years. However, it is increasingly becoming evident that in the
next 50-100 years the greatest threat to the survival of coral reefs
is global change, i.e. greenhouse warming and acidification of the
ocean.
He takes an experimental approach to gaining an understanding how
coral reefs will function in a high CO2 world. The scale
of his experiments have ranged from single coral colonies in
respirometry chambers to 100-200 colonies in a flume to a complete
community of coral reef organisms in a very large mesocosm. At UM he
hopes to build an environmentally controlled coral culturing
facility for studying the effects of the temperature and CO2,
alone and in combination, on coral photosynthesis, calcification,
fecundity, and settlement. He also plans to get out onto the reefs
in the Florida Keys to make observations where natural experiments
may be occurring due to variations in residence time.
Professional
Preparation
B.A. (1976)
Lawrence University
Ph.D. (1988)
University of Rhode Island
Postdoctoral Fellow
(1988-1990) Columbia University
Appointments
University of Miami Scientist/Assoc.
Professor
2004-present
Columbia University Research Scientist 2002-2003
Columbia University
Associate Research Scientist 1990-2002
Recent
publications
Langdon C, Atkinson MJ
(in review) Reduction of coral-calcification from CO32
decreases
by the mid-21st century. J. Geophysical Res.
Osmond B, Ananyev G,
Berry J, Langdon C, Kolber Z, Lin G, Monson R, Nichol C, Rascher U,
Schurr U, Smith S, Yakir D (2004) Changing the way we think about global
change research: scaling up in experimental ecosystem science. Global
Change Biol 10: 393-407
Langdon C, Broecker W,
Hammond D, Glenn E, Fitzsimmons K, Nelson SG, Peng T-H, Hajdas I, Bonani
G (2003) Effect of elevated CO2
on the community metabolism of an experimental coral reef. Global
Biogeochemical Cycles 17: 11-11 to 11-14
Broecker W, Langdon C,
Takahashi T, Peng T-S (2001) Factors controlling the rate of CaCO3
precipitation on Grand Bahama Bank. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 15:
589-596
Falter J, Atkinson MJ,
Langdon C (2001) Production-respiration relationships at different
timescales within the Biosphere 2 reef biome. Limnol. Oceanogr. 46:
1653-1660
Marubini F, Barnett H,
Langdon C, Atkinson MJ (2001) Dependence of calcification on light and
carbonate ion concentration for the hermatypic coral Porites
compressa. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 220: 153-162
Langdon C, Takahashi T,
Marubini F, Atkinson M, Sweeney C, Aceves H, Barnett H, Chipman D,
Goddard J (2000) Effect of calcium carbonate saturation state on the
calcification rate of an experimental coral reef. Global Biogeochemical
Cycles 14: 639-654
Langdon C (2000) Review
of experimental evidence for effects of CO2
on calcification of reef-builders Proceedings 9th
International Coral Reef Symposium. Ministry of Environment Indonesian
Institute of Sciences, Bali, Indonesia, pp 1091-1098
Links to Personal Documents
-
Review of Experimental Evidence for Effects of CO2 on
Calcification of Reef builders [PDF;
258Kb]
-
Effects of calcium carbonate saturation state on the calcification
rate of an experimental coral reef [PDF;
5Mb]
-
Effect of elevated CO2 on the community metabolism of an
experimental coral reef [PDF; 202Kb]
Click here
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