image: This is an exposed coral reef in Panamá. Exposures during La Niña events, such as this one in 2010, kill the corals en masse. Frequent La Niña events helped drive a long-term collapse of reef ecosystems across the Pacific, which began around 4,000 years ago and lasted 2,500 years. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the July 6, 2012, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by L.T. Toth at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla., and colleagues was titled, "ENSO Drove 2500-Year Collapse of Eastern Pacific Coral Reefs." view more
Credit: [Photo credit: Lauren Toth]