Anthony's Journal: Graduation! Now an honours thesis

After five and a half years of mercurial grades and effort, I wandered across the stage to collect my BSc(REM) pass degree from the Chancellor of the ANU.

This week I begin my two years of part-time study towards my honours degree. My thesis will be a description of my revisit of the revisit of the coral reef hypothesis by taking the original model (of the revisit) and incorporating changes to ocean circulation since the last Glacial Maximum(LGM).

The premise of the Coral Reef Hypothesis is that the majority of the rise in pCO2 in the atmosphere following an initial warming trigger is due to sea level rising, flooding continental shelves. This leads to the increase precipitation of calcium carbonate (reef building), releasing carbon dioxide into the ocean and thus (by Henry's Law) the atmosphere. This is a positive feedback effect.