麻豆淫院

(麻豆淫院Org.com) -- The century-old mystery of a missing mineral in coral reefs has been solved by a team from The Australian National University. 

The team, led by Dr. Bradley Opdyke of the Research School of Earth Sciences, has uncovered a hidden stash of the mineral dolomite in coral reefs around the globe, ending a search that has lasted over 100 years. The discovery was published in November鈥檚 Biogeosciences. 

鈥淔or over a century scientists have puzzled over the 鈥榙olomite problem鈥� 鈥� the mystery surrounding the abundance of dolomite in fossil reefs and its apparent absence from modern reefs,鈥� said Dr. Opdyke. 

鈥淲e have discovered that dolomite is in fact present in large quantities in modern coral reefs, but from an unexpected source.鈥� 

The team鈥檚 eureka moment came when they found large quantities of dolomite packed inside a 鈥榬eef builder鈥� species of red algae, Hydrolithon onkodes. 

鈥淭here was dolomite on the reefs all along, but it was hidden within these algae,鈥� said Dr. Opdyke. 

鈥淭his species of algae is found in abundance on reefs around the world. The algae work with coral to 鈥榗ement鈥� the reef structure to withstand the tremendous hydraulic pressure of waves. 

鈥淭his is the first discovery of dolomite associated with a living organism.鈥� 

Student Marinda Nash and Dr. Uli Troitzsch made the surprise discovery while investigating the effects of climate change on red algae. 

鈥淭he discovery was completely serendipitous 鈥� we were working on an unrelated question at the time,鈥� said Dr. Opdyke. 鈥淲hen we confirmed the finding I said to Marinda, 鈥楾his is going to be huge鈥�. It opens up a kaleidoscope of future research topics.鈥�