Bostock Leads 24-Day Reef Expedition to Probe 65,000-Year-Old Lost Landscape
Updated
Updated · ABC News · Aug 24
Bostock Leads 24-Day Reef Expedition to Probe 65,000-Year-Old Lost Landscape
3 articles · Updated · ABC News · Aug 24
Summary
A 24-day CSIRO voyage has returned with seabed samples from the southern Great Barrier Reef, where Helen Bostock’s team is reconstructing what the area looked like before rising seas submerged it.
About 65,000 years ago, sea levels were roughly 80 metres lower, and researchers say sediment cores can act as time capsules, preserving grain size, chemistry, microfossils and pollen from ancient rivers, lakes, estuaries and beaches.
Indigenous rangers from the Darumbal and Woppaburra groups joined the expedition between Swain Reef and the Capricorn Bunker Group, helping connect scientific findings with cultural stories of people once walking across the sea country.
Data gathered in 50-to-200-metre-deep waters will also support modern reef mapping and studies of sediment movement, nutrients and water temperature, with oceanography results expected within a year and sediment analysis taking longer.