Contact: Barbara Kennedy
Caption: A coral species that is found in abundance from Indonesia eastward to Fiji, Samoa, and the Line Islands rarely crosses the Eastern Pacific Barrier toward the coast of the Americas, according to a team of researchers led by Iliana Baums, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University. The research, which will be published in the journal Molecular Ecology, has important implications for climate-change research, species-preservation efforts, and the economic stability of the eastern Pacific region, including the Galapagos, Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. This photo shows Dr. Iliana Baums collecting coral samples in the Pacific Ocean.
Credit: Joshua Feingold, Nova Southwestern University
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Related news release: Darwin discovered to be right: Eastern Pacific barrier is virtually impassable by coral species