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…)

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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…)

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

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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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: biodiversity, climate and weather, coral reefs, Environment, global warming | 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…)

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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…)

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Widespread coral decline linked with onshore activities

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Australian study shows how branching corals suddenly declined and failed to recover during Queensland settlement and development era

Acropora coral at French Frigate Shoals, northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Photo courtesy NOAA.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Marine scientists have long been tracking the impacts of human activities to coral reefs, finding overfishing, logging and agricultural runoff all have negative effects. In a new Australian study, researchers linked a widespread coral collapse in the Great Barrier Reef with a  wave of settlement and development in Queensland.

Cores taken through the coral reef at Pelorus Island confirm a healthy community of branching Acropora corals flourished for centuries before European settlement of the area, despite frequent floods and cyclone events. Then, between 1920 and 1955, the branching Acropora failed to recover. (more…)

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Biodiversity: More protection sought for Hawaii reefs

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Most of Hawaii’s coral reefs are concentrated around the big island, according to this NOAA map.

Overfishing and commercial harvesting pose a threat to biodiversity

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Hawaii’s reefs may have a fighting chance to survive climate change impacts if they’re protected from other impacts like overfishing, but so far, state officials haven’t done enough conservation planning — and haven’t even followed the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act’s requirement to examine aquarium collection’s effects on the environment before issuing collection permits.

Last week, a coalition of community groups and activists took the state to court, asking Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct environmental reviews — including an examination of cumulative damage to the state’s reefs — before granting permits that allow unlimited aquarium collection of marine wildlife in coastal waters.

Earthjustice filed the complaint under the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act in the 1st Circuit Court on behalf of Rene Umberger, Mike Nakachi, Kaimi Kaupiko, Willie Kaupiko, Conservation Council for Hawaii, The Humane Society of the United States and the Center for Biological Diversity.  (more…)

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Swedish biologists launch last-ditch effort to save coral reef

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

A specimen of Lophelia pertusa, a rare cold water coral species. Photo courtesy NOAA.

Transplanting corals from nearby Norwegian waters may help reef survive trawling, sedimentation threats

By Bob Berwyn

FRISCO — Biologists have launched a restoration effort at Sweden’s only coral reef, which has been hammered by trawling and increased sedimentation from eutrophication. Continuous observations with remotely operated vehicles shows  the health of the reef slowly continues to decline.

To try and restore the the Säcken reef in the Koster Fjord, researchers with the University of Gothenburg are transplanting healthy corals from nearby reefs in Norway. The species of coral in question, Lophelia pertusa, requires an environment with a constant high level of salinity and low water temperatures all year round. In Sweden, these conditions only exist in the northern part of Bohuslän, where deep water from the Atlantic is led in via the Norwegian Trench.

“We’ve known since the mid-1920s that cold-water coral reefs exist here in Sweden,” said marine biologist and researcher Mikael Dahl. “At that time, corals could be found in three locations in the Koster Fjord. Today, only the Säcken reef remains, and it’s in poor condition.” (more…)

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Study: Caribbean coral ailments likely stress related

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Mapping coral diseases is helping researchers determine the cause. Photo courtesy NOAA.

Ocean warming suspected as key factor in outbreaks

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Mapping the spread of coral diseases in the Caribbean, a pair of Florida researchers has concluded that the outbreaks are stress related — most likely due to increasing ocean temperatures.

Mapping provides clues about the origin of diseases and how rapidly diseases can spread. Health officials have been using similar studies to trace human diseases at least since a deadly cholera outbreak in London in 1854, explained Mote Marine Lab researcher Erinn Muller. (more…)

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