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Erin Kelley

B.A Barnard College, Columbia University, 1981. Varied experiences in creative writing and journalism.

The Coral Reef: The obvious complex and dynamic aspect of a living reef is particularly fascinating to children. [Photo: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.]

for exhibit and resemch-

It is the function of museums to be a living memory of the people and for the people.

The child clinging to her mother’s hand glanced obediently at the grey plaster of Paris tuna and salmon; with a 6-year- old‘s short patience, she turned around and discovered the parallel exhibit. ‘Look, real fish!’ she squealed.

Eye-level to the middle of a 9.5 kilolitre tank, she had an intimate view of an awesome spectacle. Spike sea urchins lodged close to undulating anemones, while soft coral swayed, its frame set in motion as boughs are stirred by wind. A

bright yellow creature disappeared into a crevice. Pursued by a damselfish, a parrot- fish ílicked its fins and darted through the water; others paused to graze on an algae lawn, thick and turfy, that coated the cal- cified, rock-line surface of the reef. The child touched the glass side of the tank, felt the tropical temperature and glanced up at the glare of lighting these more than four hundred species of plants and animals and twenty species of living coral need for survival. She peered up to see the tremulous reflection of the reefs structure on the water’s surface, a perspective avail- able, until recently, only to equipped and trained adult divers.

The coral reef community on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., has fascinated 10 million visitors since its creation in 1980 by a team of biologists and geologists led by Dr Walter Adey. As a thriving model of a living system, this exhibit had no precursors: Dr Adey, who is a museum curator, a distinguished marine geologist, biologist and ecologist as well as director of the Smithsonian’s Marine Systems Laboratory, was. the first man to plan, design, construct, and maintain a living coral reef thousands of miles from its natural habitat.

Exhibit format In presenting any natural history exhibit to a heterogeneous public, one must take into account the difficulties of communi- cating to visitors who range from restless 1 O-year-olds to alert amateur paleobotan- ists. Personnel at the Coral Reef exhibit approached this problem using numerous and varied media. Placards in language intelligible to children explain that timers control ten 400-watt bulbs and four 1,000-watt halide lamps above the tank in order to create a false dawn, an artifi- cial noon and a simulated night. Several audio headsets, placed to accommodate the shorter stature of children yet equipped with long cords for adult con- venience, offer a recording which briefly and clearly summarizes the workings of the tank; it describes the circuit of ener- gies and notes characteristic traits of tank

I. Mueum, Vol. XXVII~, No. 3, 1976, p. 146.

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Laboratory area behind coral reef tank. Left foreground: auto-analyser for determining nutrient levels. Centre background (vertical tubes) : reverse-osmosis and filter system for producing high-quality fresh water to replace that evaporated from the tank. [Photo: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.]

Schematic diagram of reef and lagoon tank system, showing principal components: (1) lighting; (2) wave generator; (3) reef-lagoon interface; (4) scrubbers; ( 5 ) refugia and (6) plankton reservoir. [Photo: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.]

inhabitants. Further information, detail- ing the methods used for salinity control, the techniques of chemically balancing nutrient levels and preserving the natural relationships between organisms, geo- graphical and geological commentary, is posted within easy access of students.

A pamphlet, available on request, illus- trates through schematic diagrams the tank‘s hardware, the complex network of pumps, which suck water from one end of the tank, and piping, which carries it around to the other side. The pipes pour water into a pair of buckets that alterna- tely tip, together and separately, to form gentle or forceful waves. This ceaseless, sediment-cleansing surge and the regu- lated lighting are crucial elements for the continuing health of reef dwellers. The literature also emphasizes the importance of the algal turf ‘scrubbers’, flat, lidless, strongly lighted screen-lined boxes through which water is pumped, as waves, before returning to the main tank. The waves stimulate quick growth of algae. In turn, the algae filter animal wastes from the water, process radiant en- ergy and convert dissolved chemicals, ni- trate and carbon dioxide for example, into organic matter. When insufficient nitrate is available, blue-green algae that can ‘fix’ nitrogen become the dominant plants in the scrubbers and the system be- comes self-fertilizing.

Like most excellent ideas, the scrubber (for which Dr Adey and the Smithsonian have obtained a patent) seems almost childishly simple, yet its effectiveness as a natural fertilizer and inexpensive purifier suggests manifold applications. Vast ex- panses of the tropical seas are nutrient-

poor; yet richly productive reefs with al- gal turfs thrive where there is shallow water. Dr Adey envisions erecting plat- forms on the open ocean, floating fields for algae which could then be harvested and converted to cheap fuel. Aquarium- tank maintenance, industrial pollution control and the production of food and biomass are other far-sighted develop- ments of the scrubber concept.

In addition to the headsets and litera- ture, a ten-minute film entitled Cord Re$: Understanding their Passage tbrozlgh Time plays on a small screen near the exhibit. The documentary shows the scientists aboard their 30-metre ship and chronicles their field-work off the Haitian shores. Crowds collect daily to watch the biologists drilling into a reef and manoeuvring their amphibian aeroplane, a rebuilt military Grumman Albatross. Two hour-long films on Caribbean coral reefs and a cold-water ecosystem, scheduled for public television broad- cast, are currently in production.

Perhaps the most novel supplement to the customary exhibit format is an obser- vational window that provides a rare, backstage glimpse of the dramatic display. Here, the public can spy on laboratory technicians at work and experimenters preparing reports, all the personnel, equipment and apparatus behind the pre- sentation’s success. Just as the documen- tary vividly depicts for the public the strenuous acquisition of scientific know- ledge and specimens, this visible lab gives them a chance to see the assorted compli- cated instruments used to assemble, process and interpret data.

Within the tank, fish eat, reproduce

The CoraL Re$+ living system jör exbibìt and research 1 2 1

and protect their territories; algae capture light for photosynthesis; Coelenterata, nourished by plankton, guard their sym- biotic algae. Plant life and marine animals flourish, oblivious to spectators, uncon- cerned about elaborate human manipula- tions.

Situated in the Sea Life Hall, over- shadowed by an enormous suspended blue whale, the coral community as a model of living marine system remains one of the most popular exhibits in the entire museum. The combination of exhibit and laboratory, with its well- directed energies and carefully con trolled components, presents another, more subtle lesson in systems.

The study of systems

In order not to shirk one of its primary duties, that of education, the modern museum must find the means to teach a more sophisticated public. Its role to- day is to combine the components, make sense of them

A study of nature and man is a study of systems.3

Seas, wine-dark or otherwise, swell and plunge over 70 per cent of this globe we call earth; channels and canals, arterial rivers that gain force in the thaw by capil- lary-like streams, damp fecund marshes, wide lakes and enormous plateaux of glacial ice occupy much of what we con- sider land. The extended hydrological sys- tem influences human agriculture, the type of houses we live in, the kinds of industries that support us, our modes of transportation and our hobbies. Even ter- restrial life depends entirely on water.

The marine ecologist studies the popu- lations and ecosystems of the sea. Gener- ally, the activity of individual organisms and group behaviour in benthic com- munities are researched on location. I t depends upon unpredictable forces, vagar- ies of weather, the equipment’s fallibility, the limited stamina of divers. Com- munities of organisms change in time and space. Any real understanding re- quires working at many sites over fairly long periods of time. This in turn calls for great sums of money and lengthy ex- peditions.

The principles behind the successs of the transplanted coral reef make practical the possibilities for living replicas of every sort of marine community, from the frigid Baffin Bay area, to the subtropi- cal temperate waters of the California

Technician operating auto-analyser with back-reef section of exhibit in background. [Photo: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.]

‘Back‘ section of exhibit. To left, laboratory viewing area and research description cases. Centre right, ten-minute film on field-work and the geological development of reefs. [Pboto: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.]

Gulf, to the antarctic Palmer Peninsula. Dr Adey has already managed to con- struct a model of Maine’s coastal system, and hopes, after another voyage to this north-eastern state, to set up a subarctic microcosm for public view. His goals are to teach the public how an underwater ecosystem works and to provide an easily manipulated investigative tool for scien- tists.

While the work of Dr Adey, his asso- ciates and an energetic crew of graduate students is extremely important and their results unprecedented, the Marine Sys- tems Lab’s affiliation with the Smithso- nian Institution’s Natural History Museum raises controversial questions concerning the main purpose of a museum and the major goals of museum personnel. Since the legendary Alexan- drian centre of learning, museums have been research facilities as well as institu- tions for public education and entertain- ment. Ought a museum, a place ‘devoted to the procurement, care and display of objects of lasting interest or value’4 to offer this sort of kinetic presentation? Perhaps exhibits such as the coral reef somehow undermine the institution’s dignity; it is messier, more troublesome and expensive to preserve a reef model than to polish gemstones or repaint a dio- rama of African herds. But then, organ- isms and communities are not static in time and space any more than machines and molecules---and what is the differ-

2. Dr Walter H. Adey. 3 . Howard T. Odum, Enwiroiinzmt, Power und

4. As quoted in the Baltimore San, 11 January Society, 197 1.

1981.

1 2 2 Erin Kelly

ence between a science museum, with its working, hands-on exhibits, and a natural history museum?

In fact, the human maker of the coral reef suggests that a more proper home for his living communities might be a zoo, or most appropriately, an aquarium. However, although zoos in recent years have progressed, acquiring research staffs and devoting monies to improving intel- lectual resources, most aquaria as they are currently operated are rather carnival in aspect. Rarely are serious research staffs, that critical element needed for progress, present in aquaria. Indeed, the basic water control system for marine aquaria, while not without problems, remains un- changed after half a century of use.

Two years ago in Baltimore, Maryland, forty miles from the Washington exhibit, a multimillion dollar aquarium opened. It features a spacious, functional design by a famous architect and thousands of curious piscatory specimens-lumbering sea turtles, menacing sharks, countless rainbow-hued fish-all isolated from their natural environments. A simulated coral reef is on view, ‘so that people can get an idea of what live coral is like’. However, the basic elements of a reef, plants to collect solar energy to fuel these restless ‘machines’, corals to create a structure and myriads of smaller inver- tebrates, are absent. It is only the fish, one-tenth or less of the species in an ac- tual reef, that are present. How can this aquarium really teach the public what a natural reef is?

The inactive state of modern aquaria is partly due to inertia. However, in the United States, abruptly cut funding and myopic governmental priorities have also played their role. In 1962, Congress authorized the National Fisheries and Aquarium Center to build an aquarium that would incorporate scientific research along with displays of aquatic organisms and environments. Budget plans allotted 50 per cent for research and systems study. I t was never built.

The nations of the earth increasingly turn to the oceans for food, and mineral and fuel resources; for better or for worse, we interact across those waters and even our weather and the fresh water to grow our earth-bound crops originate in the sea. Yet, in the United States, we still have no facility in the nation’s capital which devotes itself to explaining to the public what that 70 per cent of the earth‘s surface is all about, how it func- tions and what grows there.

Numerous popular and scientifically

oriented magazines (Omiii, Science News, Science Digest and National Geographic, to cite a few American examples) of varying degrees of difficulty along with television specials such as The Underwdter Lge of Jac- p e s Cousteau and more travel by greater numbers of people, have substantially in- creased the general level of knowledge of the sea. Yet accumulating factual infor- mation does not guarantee wisdom. This comes with a first-hand feel for the nature of the sea, particularly its biological com- munities. The public, while charmed by playful porpoises and pleased by exotic- coloured fish, does not really receive at conventional aquaria that all-important synthesis of parts. And it is the investiga- tion of systems that really concerns us, or ought to.

Eleven years ago, a group of prestigi- ous conservationists convened to discuss human spoliation of certain wild islands off the Atlantic coast.

In a way, each expert thought the world had passed the point of rescue in a mad, headlong rush to pollute the planet. Consequently, most of the talk centered on plans t4 preserve whole ecosystems . . . for the day when sur- vivors of that rush will begin the job of rebuilding life-support systems.

As the layman’s interest in, and know- ledge of, scientific phenomena grows, he can no longer be content with piecemeal facts or the examination of organisms one by one. Without a base of calcified coral, without algae fodder for damselfish who become food for barracudas, a reef, that most complex natural system, would not exist. Most lay people have a good notion of what sargassum weed looks like, most can define ‘herbivorous’. Being able to re- late the scuttling of a crab and coral polyps to energy supply for a reef, to con- nect geomorphic discoveries to climate, gives our public the opportunity to make intelligent decisions for wise utilization, and to support legislation that manages and safeguards the treasures of the sea.

We learn best through direct observa- tion and stimulation of the sense. Through the lively impact of the Smith- sonian’s coral reef, children, clear-sighted receptors for knowledge, learn how they can work with parts of our marine en- vironment to our long- term advantage. Those who follow us-they see what it is possible to achieve and yet what must be saved and not merely remembered.

5 . As quoted in the New York Timer, 4 July 1972.