Coral reefs: ‘Business as usual won’t cut it’

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Coral reef ecosystems are facing serious threats from global warming as well as local impacts. Photo courtesy Renata Ferrari.

Study says concerted global and local action required

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A detailed new study supports the idea that protecting coral reefs from local impacts like over-fishing and polluted runoff is a key part of any strategy to try and bolster reefs in the face of climate change.

The researchers concluded that, even though coral reefs are in decline, their collapse can be avoided with concerted global and local action.

“People benefit by reefs’ having a complex structure—a little like a Manhattan skyline, but underwater,” said Peter Mumby, of The University of Queensland and University of Exeter. “Structurally complex reefs provide nooks and crannies for thousands of species and provide the habitat needed to sustain productive reef fisheries. They’re also great fun to visit as a snorkeler or diver. If we carry on the way we have been, the ability of reefs to provide benefits to people will seriously decline.” (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs, Environment, global warming | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Study: comprehensive ocean monitoring network needed

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Scientists say managing ocean resources requires better monitoring. Bob Berwyn photo.

‘To date, there have been few attempts to track biodiversity broadly in the ocean’

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — With the world’s oceans facing serious global warming threats, U.S. researchers say it’s high time to establish a national effort to monitor marine biodiversity.

Humans depend on the ocean for food, medicine, transportation and recreation, yet little is known about how these vast ecosystems spanning 70 percent of the Earth’s surface are functioning and changing. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, coral reefs, endangered species, Environment, Marine biology, ocean conservation | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Environment: Air pollution can stunt coral reef growth

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

New study may help inform reef conservation effrot

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Bleached coral in the Caribbean. Photo courtesy NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Coral reefs are at risk from global warming, but regional aerosol emissions may also be a significant factor in how corals grow, according to a new study by scientists with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

The research linked airborne particles caused by volcanic activity and air pollution to episodes of slow coral-reef growth. The findings came as part of an effort to to better predict the effects of climate change and human disturbance on reefs.

The data came from several coral cores drilled in reefs near the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal formed by the coral species Siderastrea siderea between 1880 and 1989, whereas samples from the Turneffe atoll in Belize showed growth fluctuations in the coral species Montastrea faveolata from 1905 to 1998. (more…)

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Crowdfunding campaign to help with reef conservation

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Legal protection sought for rare double-barrier reef. Photo courtesy NOAA.

Project to highlight threats, conservation opportunities at the Philippines Danajon Bank

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Online crowdfunding will be a big part of a new international effort to draw attention to a rare double-barrier reef in the Philippines, where an international team of scientists and nature photographers will team up to advocate for legal protection for the Danajon Bank.

“Not many people have heard of Danajon Bank. We plan to change that,” said Prof. Amanda Vincent, director of Project Seahorse, a University of British Columbia Zoological Society of London initiative. “Crowdfunding is a fantastic way to raise funds and inspire the public to take ownership of issues such as marine conservation, so we thought: why not start there?” she said. (more…)

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New species found in threatened New Guinea lagoon

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Crinoid on the reef of Batu Moncho Island, Indonesia.

Crinoid on the reef of Batu Moncho Island, Indonesia. Photo courtesy Alexander Vasenin via Wikipedia and the Creative Commons.

Science team explores little-known reef ecosystem

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — An idyllic tropical lagoon threatened by pollution from a tuna cannery is a Pacific Ocean biodiversity hotspot, according to researchers from Nova Southeastern University, who recently surveyed the ocean off Papua New Guinea.

The study found numerous new species of marine life, including sea slugs, feather stars  and amphipods. There was more variety of these indicator species found than there is along the entire length of Australia’s 1,600-mile Great Barrier Reef, said Jim Thomas, a researcher at Nova Southeastern University’s National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Florida.

“In the Madang Lagoon, we went a half mile out off the leading edge of the active Australian Plate and were in 6,000 meters of water,” said Thomas, Ph.D., a researcher at Nova Southeastern University’s National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Fla.

“It was once believed there were no reefs on the north coast of Papua New Guinea since there were no shallow bays and lagoons typical of most coral reef environments. But there was lots of biodiversity to be found.” (more…)

Filed under: Environment, Marine biology, biodiversity, coral reefs, ocean conservation | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Global warming: Study maps coral reef vulnerability

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Global warming threatens coral reef diversity. Photo courtesy NOAA.

74 percent of world’s reefs could see annual bleaching events by 2035

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Using the latest data from the upcoming IPCC climate assessment, ocean researchers have concluded that about three-quarters of the world’s coral reefs could face annual bleaching events in just a short 30 years, and they’ve mapped out which areas will be hit first.

“This study represents the most up-to-date understanding of spatial variability in the effects of rising temperatures on coral reefs on a global scale,” said researcher Serge Planes, Ph.D., from the French research institute CRIOBE in French Polynesia. (more…)

Filed under: Environment, global warming, biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Study confirms benefits of marine sanctuaries

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
A spiny lobster in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary.

A spiny lobster in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary. Photo courtesy NOAA.

Conservation in the Florida Keys benefits ecosystems and fisheries

By Summit Voice

FRISCO —Over-fished species like black and red grouper are making a comeback in south Florida waters thanks to strict management of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The 151-square nautical mile Tortugas Ecological Reserve was designated by the Florida Keys sanctuary in 2001, and its design involved extensive collaboration between commercial and recreational fishermen, divers, scientists, conservationists, citizens-at-large and resource managers. The reserve is closed to all consumptive use, including fishing and anchoring, and a portion of it is open only to permitted marine researchers. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, coral reefs, endangered species, Environment | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Climate: Unraveling the mysteries of heat-tolerant corals

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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 Acropora coral from the Persian/Arabian Gulf bleached during summer 2012. Photo courtesy Coral Reef Laboratory.

Lab cultures of Persian Gulf corals may help explain molecular complexities

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — An international science team says it has established successful laboratory cultures of Persian Gulf corals that have a high tolerance for very warm water — temperatures thought to kill most coral species.

The new experiments may help explain how some corals survive seawater temperatures higher than those predicted for the tropics during the next century.

“This will greatly accelerate the progress of unraveling the mechanisms that underlie their surprising heat resistance,” said Dr. Jörg Wiedenmann, head of the Coral Reef Laboratory at the University of Southampton’s Ocean and Earth Science facility. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs, Environment, global warming | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Coral reef research highlights big drop in growth rates

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Caribbean corals struggling to produce enough calcium carbonate to survice

A coral reef at the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Photo courtesy Jim Maragos/USFWS.

A coral reef at the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Photo courtesy Jim Maragos/USFWS.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Many coral reefs in the Caribbean are struggling to keep pace with erosion, as their ability to produce and accumulate calcium carbonate declines in the face of human-caused impacts, researchers from the University of Exeter reported this week. That inability to grow raises serious questions about whether the reefs will be able to adapt to rising sea levels, the researchers reported.

Coral reefs are important ocean biodiversity hotspots and serve as nurseries for a profusion of marine life. In a sweeping decision several weeks ago, federal biologists said at least 66 species of coral in the Caribbean and Pacific are in danger of going extinct because of threats linked to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Coral cover on reefs in the Caribbean has declined by an average of 80 percent since the 1970s, driven mainly by human disturbance, disease and rising sea temperatures, and are only expected to intensify as a result of future climate change. (more…)

Filed under: air quality, biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs, global warming, greenhouse gases, Marine biology, ocean conservation | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Some corals show genetic resistance to global warming

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Identifying coral species that can survive hot water temps may help conservation efforts. Photo courtesy NOAA.

‘Climate change is coming’

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Here in the Colorado high country, the pine beetle epidemic that wiped out huge swaths of forest is one of the most visible signs of climate change. But in the midst of the destruction, you can find a few isolated lodgepole pines that survived the beetle invasion, standing as lone green giants in a sea of gray and brown tree skeletons.

There’s some speculation that there is enough genetic variation within the species that certain individual trees are able to repel the insects — and the same may be true of corals, another type of ecoystem that’s feeling the pain of global warming.

After a detailed genetic study of shallow-reef corals near Ofu Island in American Samoa, researchers from Stanford say that some corals are genetically “front-loaded” to withstand heat stress, with heat-stress genes already turned on and ready to work even before the eat stress began. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs, global warming | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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