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<DIV><SPAN class=620201507-08112000>I take the comment about the weir at
Heron. Sea level rise is likely not to be an issue if corals are growing
healthily and normally. But as was discussed at the Thursday night
session, the effects of sea level rise are likely to be negative if corals are
are not growing and reproducing normally. As most evidence would suggest
that this is likely to be the case in warming and expanding oceans, one would
conclude that sea level rise is unlikely to represent a great boon or
compensator in terms of our rapidly warming world. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=620201507-08112000></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=620201507-08112000><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Ove</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Don McAllister
[mailto:mcall@superaje.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, 7 November 2000 11:11
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Nerilie Abram<BR><B>Cc:</B> oveh@uq.edu.au;
helen.mcgregor@anu.edu.au; coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov<BR><B>Subject:</B>
Re: 9ICRS debate on coral reefs and climate change<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<P>Nerilie Abram wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE="CITE"> We fully agree that temperature rise and
CO<SUB><FONT size=-2>2</FONT></SUB> rise are serious and potentially
devastating threats to the future of coral reefs, however we firmly believe
that sea level rise is not a threat to coral reefs. Geological evidence in
fact suggests quite the opposite, and under the currently projected rates of
future sea level rise coral reefs around the world should easily be able to
keep pace with sea level rise and would most likely flourish in the new
“accommodation space” provided for reef growth. An example can be observed
on Heron Island, where the construction of a weir resulted in an artificial
and immediate sea level rise on the order of metres and has been accompanied
by a marked increase in coral reef growth. Of course, given the stresses on
reefs by other factors their ability to respond to rising sea level may not
be as great as that</BLOCKQUOTE>I ask purely out of ignorance. Was the
Heron Island coral coral diversity behind the weir the same as it was
before? I can deforests and plow a field and let it go back to nature -
but first there will be a lot of weeds and it make take a long time before the
balance is what it used to be. The diversity of corals is in some ways
related to the much higher degree of diversity of organisms that live amongst
them. Less than a 1000 coral species support almost a million species of
scientifically named and as yet unnamed species.
<P>Can one track such fine detail as species change in the geological
record? A few corals take centuries to reach their full size and form.
<P>don <BR>Don McAllister <BR>Ocean Voice International <BR>
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