{"468541":{"#nid":"468541","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Coral Reef Researcher Wins Explorer\u2019s Club Honor","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA century ago, being an explorer meant trekking across icy wastelands, scaling impossibly high mountains or spending months at sea in search of new lands, unseen creatures and new scientific knowledge. Today\u2019s explorers may travel by airliner, but the organisms they see, what they explore and the scientific data they bring back are no less important.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnderstanding what\u0027s killing the world\u0027s coral reefs has been the life work of \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/people\/mark-hay\u0022\u003EMark Hay\u003C\/a\u003E, the Teasley Professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biology\u003C\/a\u003E at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During the past 35 years, he\u0027s made more than 5,000 dives, worked weeks at a time underwater in both the Caribbean and Pacific \u2013 and each year spends as much as five months with villagers on the Fiji Islands.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn November 7, he received the Lowell Thomas Award from the New York-based Explorers Club, which cited his pioneering of innovative and effective new approaches for coral reef conservation. \u201cDr. Hay\u2019s research and discoveries have influenced the foundations in the field of marine chemical ecology and created new procedures for effective conservation and management of the world\u2019s coral reefs,\u201d the organization said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHay notes that over the last 40 years, the world has lost 80 percent of coral reefs in Caribbean and 50 percent of the reefs in the Pacific. That loss has broad impacts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor about a billion people around the world in the tropics, coral reefs are one of the major sources of protein, so the loss affects food security for these areas,\u201d he noted. \u201cReefs also provide storm protection for low-lying villages, absorbing big waves coming into shore. And coral reefs are kind of the underwater version of tropical rain forests because they have significant unexplored potential as a source of new therapeutic drugs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHay\u2019s research has focused on the complex interactions between species, communicated by chemical signals emitted by the plants and animals that are part of the reef community. For instance, seaweeds harm coral by emitting poisonous chemicals, by shading the coral, and by mechanically damaging it. Certain fish protect coral by controlling the seaweeds, but overfishing has allowed seaweed to get out of control on many reefs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have asked which fish can get rid of those chemically-rich seaweeds, so we can tell villagers which species they can catch without harming the reefs, and which species they may want to protect,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are trying to understand enough of the pieces and parts to know how we can work with local villagers. We can\u2019t mandate what they do, but we can inform them and their culture will take care of it from there.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe demise of coral reefs likely has many causes, and Hay acknowledges that he cannot address them all. But he believes that by understanding the details of the ecosystem, tweaking some factors \u2013 such as which fish to protect \u2013 can have an impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want to switch from cataloging the demise to asking how we can fix things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are looking at it more or less like a molecular scientist or human health researcher would. We\u2019re asking what are the chemical signals involved, and whether there are opportunities to make minor adjustments that can have huge benefits.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmong recent examples, Hay and collaborators have learned that degraded reefs produce chemicals that tell baby fish and baby corals to stay away. Unless those signals can somehow be changed, damaged reefs won\u2019t have a chance to recover.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany coral reef organisms lack hearing or vision. Instead, they must rely for their information on chemical signals provided by other organisms.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve realized that many of these species are behaving based primarily on chemical cues,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey are perceiving the world chemically and reacting to that. Simple phytoplankton in the ocean can smell their neighbors being attacked, and from the smell, can identify who\u2019s attacking and then respond in appropriate ways \u2013 by changing their shape or chemistry.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt Georgia Tech, Hay keeps an office and lab. But the majority of his experiments are conducted in the wild, on the coral reef, building cages to determine what happens when certain species are excluded and to learn about interactions between plants and animals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI really have Georgia Tech\u2019s biggest lab \u2013 the world,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe try not to extract things from nature to ask how species are interacting. We try to find that out in nature. We spend huge amounts of time underwater. We\u2019re wearing wet suits and we\u2019re up to our necks in mud and water all day.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPrevious winners of the Lowell Thomas award, named after the noted broadcaster, have included Edwin \u201cBuzz\u201d Aldrin, Jr., Isaac Asimov, Sir David Attenborough, Robert Ballard, Eugenie Clark, Sylvia A. Earle, Sir Edmund Hillary, Carl Sagan, Kathryn D. Sullivan and Charles E. \u201cChuck\u201d Yeager. The organization has 3,200 members worldwide.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Explorers Club was founded in 1904, and boasts a membership that was first to the North Pole, the first the South Pole, the first to the summit of Everest, the first to the deepest point of the ocean \u2013 and first to the surface of the moon. With all those accomplishments on record, does that mean the time of exploration is past?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think this is the time of maximal exploration,\u201d said Hay. \u201cThere is more exploration going on right now than has ever gone on before. I\u2019ve been to more places around the world than any pirate. The amount of information we\u2019re gathering \u2013 which is exploration and finding out new things about the world \u2013 is tremendous.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat keeps him going after all these years?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI love being underwater and seeing new things,\u201d Hay said. \u201cEverybody is trying to get lunch without becoming lunch. I\u2019m always wondering about who eats who, what goes on, and the intricacies of the ecology and evolution.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contact\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) (404-894-6986).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUnderstanding what\u0027s killing the world\u0027s coral reefs has been the life work of Mark Hay, the Teasley Professor in the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During the past 35 years, he\u0027s made more than 5,000 dives, worked weeks at a time underwater in both the Caribbean and Pacific \u2013 and each year spends as much as five months with villagers on the Fiji Islands.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech Teasley Professor Mark Hay has received the Lowell Thomas Award from the New York-based Explorers Club."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2015-11-10 21:05:51","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:58","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"468501":{"id":"468501","type":"image","title":"Mark Hay with Glaciers","body":null,"created":"1449257147","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:25:47","changed":"1475895216","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:36","alt":"Mark Hay with Glaciers","file":{"fid":"203826","name":"mark-hay-glaciers.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mark-hay-glaciers_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mark-hay-glaciers_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":968653,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mark-hay-glaciers_0.jpg?itok=wlXKcBVy"}},"468511":{"id":"468511","type":"image","title":"Healthy coral reef","body":null,"created":"1449257147","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:25:47","changed":"1475895216","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:36","alt":"Healthy coral reef","file":{"fid":"203827","name":"healthy-reef.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/healthy-reef_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/healthy-reef_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":520276,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/healthy-reef_0.jpg?itok=ChjpCEXX"}},"468521":{"id":"468521","type":"image","title":"Mark Hay diving","body":null,"created":"1449257147","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:25:47","changed":"1475895216","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:36","alt":"Mark Hay diving","file":{"fid":"203828","name":"mark-hay-diving.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mark-hay-diving_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mark-hay-diving_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1204891,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mark-hay-diving_0.jpg?itok=g4igc-1W"}}},"media_ids":["468501","468511","468521"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"7166","name":"coral"},{"id":"14760","name":"coral reef"},{"id":"4098","name":"ecosystem"},{"id":"147551","name":"explorer"},{"id":"4211","name":"fiji"},{"id":"13884","name":"Mark Hay"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71911","name":"Earth and Environment"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 894-6986\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}