Research Symposium

BIO

am a third-year undergraduate majoring in environmental science and minoring in biology. I joined Dr. Atwood’s lab to understand how a research lab operates, hoping to one day run my own. I have recently begun a new project that aims to create a record of ENSO variability in the eastern Pacific Ocean through proxy data gathered from Galapagos Islands coral skeletons.
I am originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, but I have been living in Fort Lauderdale since 2012. I enjoy hiking, backpacking, camping, playing soccer, or doing some other sort of outdoor activity when possible.

Multi-trace Element Reconstructions of Modern Porites spp. Corals from Isla Floreana, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Abstract

Scleractinian (“stony”) corals are valuable archives that track past sea surface temperature (SST) variability before direct measurements were available through variations in the geochemical composition of their aragonite skeletons. Porites spp. corals are a commonly used genera in paleoclimate reconstructions because they are long-lived, slow-growing, and have clear seasonal banding patterns. Sr/Ca is one of the most used coral paleothermometers due to its strong inverse relationship with (SST). However, major uncertainties in Sr/Ca can arise due to variations in calcification during the coral biomineralization process. U/Ca is paired with Sr/Ca to reduce the offsets produced in Sr/Ca and calculate Sr-U, a mean temperature proxy.
The Galápagos Islands has unique oceanographic conditions relative to the rest of the Pacific. The Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) flows eastward at about 200 meters depth, shoaling at the western boundary of the Galápagos. This causes the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water throughout the archipelago. Changes in strength of the southeast trade winds and the South Equatorial Current (SEC) can also result in short extreme temperature swings that make Galápagos corals prone to significant stress. For this project, Porites spp. corals were collected from Isla Floreana (1°15'47" S, 90°21'40" W) in August 2024. 150-200 micrograms of coral powder was run for Sr/Ca and U/Ca to develop a time series and calculate Sr-U for Isla Floreana and evaluate its relationship with SST. Reconstructing SSTs in the Galápagos Islands will expand on the impacts that oceanographic conditions have on coral geochemistry.

Keywords: Coral, Paleoclimate, Reconstruction, Galapagos