[Coral-List] Bleaching "shuffling" is a catastroph

martin.pecheux at free.fr martin.pecheux at free.fr
Tue Apr 16 00:50:45 EDT 2013


Dear Jason,

I just read your article in BMC Evol Biol, 2012, 12, 217 on genetic basis of thermal tolerance of clade D. Interresting that you suggest that "clades" are like Family or Order. Very important the evidence of the role of thylakoid membrane stability (I will come latter on this point).

BUT you seem ENTHOUSIASTIC with the possibility of corals to "shuffle" to resistant clade D in front of mass bleaching and Climate Change (i.e. the "Adaptative Bleaching Hypothesis"). NO, for me, it is an horror. Clade D is also very less productive (Little et al., 2004, Cantin et al., 2009, LaJeunesse et al., 2009). Even if "coral species" survive, this means we are losing every days the "good" sensitive symbionts at profit of poor resistant ones (as expected from simple logic). As the process goes on for this century(ies), we will lose the pretty productive reefs, and recovery needs 10 millions years, as seen from previous mass extinctions.

Little AF, van Oppen MJH, Willis BL, 2004, Flexibility in Algal Endosymbioses Shapes Growth in Reef Corals. Science, 304, 1492-1494.
Cantin NE, van Oppen MJH, Willis BL, Mieog JC, Negri AP, 2009, Juvenile corals can acquire more carbon from high-performance algal symbionts. Coral Reefs, 28, 405-414.
LaJeunesse TC, Smith RT, Finney J, Oxenford H, 2009, Outbreak and persistence of opportunistic symbiotic dinoflagellates during the 2005 Caribbean mass coral “bleaching” event. Proc Roy Soc B Biol Sc, 276, 4139-4148.

Sorry, the future is very gloomy,

Dr Martin Pecheux
IPCC 2007 member (Nobel Peace Prize), 2014, soon IPBES
Institut des Foraminifères Symbiotiques
16, rue de la Fontaine de l'Espérance
92160 Antony, France
Email : martin.pecheux at free.fr
Web : martin-pecheux.fr
Phone : +33 (0)1 40 96 01 99

L'homme descend du singe, la preuve, c'est qu'il croit en dieu.
Human's origin is monkey, proof the belief in god.
Nosotros descendemos de los monos, prueba se cree en dios.
Der Mensch stammt vom Affen ab, Beweis ist dass er an Gott glaubt.




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