No barrier to a reef in Canberra - ABC Local

The way coral reefs form can give us clues to the health of the ocean around them, as well as earth's climate more generally.

Dr Stephen Eggins from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences is part of a team looking at how ocean acidity changes the makeup of coral ecosystems.

Carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, making the water more acidic.

The more carbon in the atmosphere, the higher the acidity of the ocean, which affects the rate at which the coral grows.

The research that Dr Eggins is involved in grows coral in sea water with varying levels of acidity to see how they may be affected by future rises in atmospheric carbon.