Leaders for today’s Ramble: Dr. Jim Porter and Dr. Karen Porter
Authors of today’s Ramble report: Jim Porter, Linda Chafin
The photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter. Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen.
Coral reefs are in the news: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/science/coral-reef-trafficking-aquariums.html
Note from Linda: Today’s Ramble was held at UGA’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, in the Richard Russell Special Collections Library, and featured a tour led by Dr. Jim Porter, world-renowned coral reef expert, and his wife and research partner, Dr. Karen Porter, of their exhibit “Sunken Treasure: The Art & Science of Coral Reefs.” The exhibit explores the history of coral and coral reefs through a display of coral specimens collected by the Porters during their fifty years of marine research as well as rare books collected by Jim Porter during this time. The manuscripts and books date back to the 1600s and include works by scientific luminaries Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Carl Linnaeus, Ernst Haeckel, and more.
From the exhibit website: “Corals reefs cover less than one percent of the surface of planet Earth but are home to nearly twenty-five percent of all marine species. They are productive ecosystems that support marine life, protect land from the damage posed by ocean waves and hurricanes, and provide food and income for half a billion people.” The exhibit will remain on display through Friday, July 5, 2024.
Ten short videos that provide supporting and background information to the exhibit can be viewed on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu9kdKOtZYp3wizN1Ydnfolv0osKHwbbT
Student artists at UGA created colorful posters for the exhibit.
Jim Porter (left) with a small sample of his voluminous library of coral books and manuscripts. Karen Porter (right) discussing historical uses of red coral.
Corals are composed of hundreds of thousands of microscopic animals called coral polyps that live together in a mutually beneficial relationship with each other and with photosynthetic algal cells. “The coral provides the [algae] with a protected environment and compounds they need for photosynthesis. In return, the [algae] produce oxygen and help the coral to remove wastes. Most importantly, [algae] supply the coral with glucose, glycerol, and amino acids, which are the products of photosynthesis. The coral uses these products to make proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and produce calcium carbonate. The relationship between the [algae] and coral polyps facilitates a tight recycling of nutrients in nutrient-poor tropical waters. In fact, as much as 90% of the organic material photosynthetically produced by the [algae] is transferred to the host coral tissue. This is the driving force behind the growth and productivity of coral reefs” (NOAA, National Ocean Service). UGA Special Collections Libraries video What is Coral? can be viewed here.
Jim Porter conducts a tour of his book and coral collection for the Nature Ramblers at the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Gallery.
Ancestral sea-anemone coral
The “big mouth” indicates that this coral relied mostly on eating fish and plankton, and less on its symbiotic algae.
This highly evolved leaf coral has no mouths, but instead relies entirely on its symbiotic algae for nutrients.
Although normally white, this coral skeleton has been lit up by a laser pointer aimed from behind, illustrating how this solid stone skeleton is actually very good at passing light through it to promote photosynthesis of the symbiotic algae, which live in the tissue on all sides of the skeleton.
The surface of a lobster pot weight became a settling surface for a large number of coral species after Hurricane Maria; in fact, 20% of known Caribbean corals are represented here. Karen Porter collected this weight in the Florida Keys and named it “Hope” – corals are out there, we just need to give them clean water to live in.
Among Jim’s coral library is a volume by Johann Esper. Esper (1742 – 1810) was a German zoologist, naturalist, and professor of zoology. He published a series of books featuring watercolors of plants, birds, minerals, butterflies, and corals. His are some of the most accurate scientific drawings of reef-building corals ever made. All of Jim’s books on corals, as well as coral collection, will be housed at the University of Georgia.
Esper (like Jim) started his zoology career working on butterflies. These paintings by Esper of Costa Rican butterflies were all made in 1785, the year UGA was founded.
Jim’s book and manuscript collection includes Charles Darwin’s own copy of his first book, On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1842 (17 years before On the Origin of Species)
Map of global distribution of major groups of atolls and coral reefs known at that time serves as the frontispiece to Darwin’s On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (photo credit, Wikipedia)
J.W. Dana’s “Elephant Folio” of the Atlas of Reef Building Corals, 1848. Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, this book was painted by the same water colorists who painted Audubon’s Birds of America.
Ernst Haeckel (1834 – 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, marine biologist and artist. He discovered and named thousands of new species. Consider this: Darwin’s, Lamarck’s, Linnaeus’s, and Haeckel’s first books were on corals.
These plates are from Haeckel’s 1875 Reef Corals of the Arabian Sea.
Jim’s 2017 documentary film, Chasing Coral, to which he contributed as a Principal Cast Member and Chief Scientific Advisor, won 1st Place at Sundance, a Peabody Award, and an Emmy for Best Nature Documentary. It is still available for streaming on Netflix. Trailer for Chasing Coral can be seen here.
Red Coral, also called Precious Coral, belongs to the genus Corallium. Their brilliantly colored skeletons are due to carotenoid pigments. They have been used for jewelry and for amulets as protection from evil spirits. Karen suggested that the medieval red coral pieces shown here were probably used as teething devices rather than for warding off the evil eye.
Karen Porter as a Caribbean conquistador pirate, circa 1977. Living on a small island in the Caribbean for two years will do this to you!
Indo-Pacific lettuce coral (close-up, right) – one of many gorgeous shapes of corals.