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-21^st 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 9^th 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 to download CV.