Mar 2023
“In the Cenozoic, temperatures and pCO2 dropped from high levels of the late Mesozoic to present-day levels, with a plateau in the Early to Middle Miocene. Afterwards, during the Late Miocene, that scleractinian coral reefs developed into the euphotic ecosystems known from the present-day tropical and subtropical shallow-waters. Coral diversity of Miocene reefs assigned to the Burdigalian to Langhian Wadi Waqb Member (Jabal Kibrit Formation) from outcrops exposed in the foothills behind the Red Sea coastline near Umluj, Saudi Arabia show a similar coral composition with the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Gulf. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the Red was connected to the Mediterranean through the Gulf of Suez. Modern coral reefs in the Red Sea with fringing reef and lagoon differ significantly from the Burdigalian mounds. This conforms with previous work on the Burdigalian in the Mediterranean that points to a mesophotic affinity of coral buildups during that time.”
“Hildegard Westphal is Professor for Geology of the Tropics at University of Bremen, Germany, and workgroup leader Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen, Germany, of which she was the scientific director from 2010-2020. She focusing on paleoecology, paleoclimatology, and carbonate sedimentology in tropical sedimentary systems. Her research work has taken her, inter alia, to Mauritania, the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia and Tanzania. She is currently a visiting faculty at Physical Science and Engineering Division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, focusing on the reaction of reef systems to stressors through time.”