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Bit O’ Coral

They look like pancakes, but they are actually bits of living coral called “nubbins” with a green band of algae growing inside their skeleton. Coral animals form their hard skeleton out of calcium carbonate, over time creating massive reefs. Hannah Barkley, an MIT-WHOI graduate student in Anne Cohen’s Lab, studies the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on coral reefs by exposing nubbins to different levels of carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater. You can learn more about what the future holds for corals (and other marine life) by watching the NOVA special “Lethal Seas,” which premiers tonight, May 13, on PBS stations.(Photo by Hannah Barkley, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)