[Coral-List] About time!
Dr. James M Cervino
cnidaria at earthlink.net
Tue Oct 10 14:39:45 EDT 2006
Dear Ilsa & Devon,
Congrats on a thorough well put together manuscript! It is about time
that these data are beginning to get published, I will use this for
my class this next semester.
The sad point is that the people that think urchin grazing and other
dwindling herbivores/landscapers swimming on reef system control the
algal lawns that smother corals. This says to the developers that
claim "hey our point source" that is spewing secondary treated
sewage out into a reef is not the reason for the reefs to become
algal dominated, its because the spiny urchin died off that used to
be a proficient landscaper and kept the corals "macro-algae free".
Devon what I am not saying that top down controls are not
significant, they are. However, what I am trying to say is that the
levels of nutrients that induce algal blooms cannot be controlled
with more grazers.
Cheers, James
--
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Dr. James M. Cervino, MS, Ph.D.
Marine Pathology
Department of Biological & Health Sciences
Pace University New York NYC
Phone: (917) 620-5287
Web site: http://www.globalcoral.org
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