[Coral-List] Marine water test kits

Hankins, Cheryl Hankins.Cheryl at epa.gov
Wed Jul 9 12:18:46 EDT 2014


Barbara,
You may want to check out Hanna instruments and HACH colorimeters. Hanna test kits will be more in line with the Salifert test kits (easy enough to use for the home hobbyist). HACH colorimeters are more scientific; they are easy to use but just require a more....delicate technique.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cheryl Hankins 
Biologist
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
NHEERL, Gulf Ecology Division
1 Sabine Island Drive
Gulf Breeze, FL 32561
(850)934-9340
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



-----Original Message-----
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Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 11:00 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 71, Issue 5

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Today's Topics:

   1. Fwd: FW: Announcement of Florida's 2014/2015 State	Wildlife
      Grants Cycle (Heather Hitt)
   2. Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy tales (Peter Sale)
   3. Marine water test kits (Barbara Gratzer)
   4. Re: Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy tales
      (Szmant, Alina)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 12:02:37 -0400
From: Heather Hitt <heatherhitt82 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Fwd: FW: Announcement of Florida's 2014/2015
	State	Wildlife Grants Cycle
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
	<CAKUaP2Q7acq_f1K9YYDktNcAvaMHOPOfDVdmPcMxrtdMhpiyrA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Grant Announcement FYI



*Heather Hitt*

*Northeast Regional Wildlife Legacy Biologist*

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960

Phone: 772-469-4267     Fax: 772-562-4288

Cell: 352-857-2482

MyFWC.com/WildlifeLegacy
<http://myfwc.com/conservation/special-initiatives/fwli/>





*From:* Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission [mailto:
MyFWC at public.govdelivery.com]
*Sent:* Friday, June 27, 2014 1:33 PM
*To:* Hitt, Heather
*Subject:* Announcement of Florida?s 2014/2015 State Wildlife Grants Cycle



[image: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission]

Dear Conservation Partners,



Florida?s Wildlife Legacy Initiative staff is pleased to invite you to submit applications for Florida?s State Wildlife Grants Program.
Applications are due by *12:00 p.m. Eastern time July 28, 2014.* Applications should be prepared in accordance with Florida?s State Wildlife Grants Program Guidelines, which can be found on the State Wildlife Grants
- Apply for a Grant
<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwNjI3LjMzNDk5NTIxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDYyNy4zMzQ5OTUyMSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3MDg3MDcwJmVtYWlsaWQ9aGVhdGhlci5oaXR0QG15ZndjLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9aGVhdGhlci5oaXR0QG15ZndjLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&100&&&http://myfwc.com/conservation/special-initiatives/fwli/grant/apply/>
Web page. Applicants will be notified about selected projects by *February 13, 2015*. Selected projects will start no earlier than *July 1, 2015*.



Florida?s Wildlife Legacy Initiative is seeking applications for the following projects. The linked PDF below contains the specific criteria for the 2014 State Wildlife Grants Announcement.



   - *Data Gaps*

- *Project*: Filling Data Gaps to Address the Management of the Sanibel Island Rice Rat (*Oryzomys palustris sanibeli*)

   - *Marine*

- *Project*: Turf Algae, Sedimentation, and Community Structure and Processes

   - *Climate Adaptation*

- *Project*: Community-based oyster restoration and living shoreline





These projects are being developed to address the goals of Florida's State Wildlife Action Plan. Florida?s Wildlife Legacy Initiative has identified the project need and objectives. Applicants are asked to submit project proposals that detail the approach best suited to meet the stated objectives.



To be considered, applicants must submit a completed State Wildlife Grant application, fully developed scope of work, budget and match commitment letter that specifically relate to the needs and objectives of these projects.



Should you have any questions regarding the grant cycle or application requirements, please contact Andrea Alden, the State Wildlife Grants Coordinator, at Andrea.Alden at MyFWC.com or Robyn McDole, the Assistant State Wildlife Grants Coordinator, at Robyn.McDole at MyFWC.com.



   - 2014_SWG_GeneralAnnouncement.pdf
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------------------------------

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 15:49:27 -0400
From: Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
Subject: [Coral-List] Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy tales
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
	<OF98F5499A.B4306C88-ON85257D0F.006C6F89-85257D0F.006CE5CE at uwindsor.ca>
	
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Hi coral-listers,
In 2012, Roger Bradbury raised considerable ire amongst his coral reef buddies, by daring to paint a bleak picture of the state of the world so far as coral reef condition was concerned.  He used an Op-Ed in The New York Times to go contrary to the received wisdom that we must not tell people bad news because it only turns them off.  Far better to talk about the small glimpses of light: the rare MPA that works, the reef that mysteriously fails to bleach, the coral transplant project that seems to be replenishing reefs ? to talk about them even if they are transient as well as small.  This helps people feel better about life, while we gently convince them that the sky really is, for the most part, falling.  (As you may have guessed, I don?t subscribe to this orthodoxy, although I do recognize that there are good ways and less effective ways of conveying bad news.) As a recent example of this tendency to gloss reality with a glitter of false good news, consider the latest report on the state of the Caribbean (Jackson et al 2014).  We first heard about it also in 2012, when Jeremy Jackson presented some of the data at ICRS Cairns.  It is good to see IUCN has finally released it.
A careful read of this IUCN report provides abundant data, careful analyses, and sad conclusions on what has been happening to Caribbean reefs.  The science is well done.  The issue of loss of herbivory as a likely factor leading to the widespread massive overgrowth of macroalgae is appropriately reported, along with its cause ? a disease that nearly wiped out Diadema antillarum across the region in 1983 (Lessios et al 1984), and chronic overfishing which has decimated populations of herbivorous parrot fishes over most of the region.  Other important stressors, particularly the issues of too many tourists, coral diseases that were perhaps introduced in ballast water from outside the Caribbean, and various forms of pollution are also discussed.  Climate change turns out to have not yet had major impacts although those impacts are likely coming. 
The document also notes the absence of quality data and lack of uniform monitoring indices that make deciphering what has happened far more difficult than it should have been.  In my opinion, the authors fail to address the unfortunate lack of solid evidence for most of the causal processes inferred ? if management interventions had been routinely, and appropriately monitored we would be far more certain of the links between overfishing, pollution, algal growth, coral recruitment and coral disease than we are.  Still, the authors do a generally responsible job of assessing competing hypotheses..  They also state, quite clearly that ?the disparate reef histories clearly demonstrate the folly of attempting to understand the causes of coral reef decline for the entire Caribbean as a single ecosystem, an approach that ignores the enormous heterogeneity in environments and history of human and natural disturbance among different reef locations.?  With a careful read, this is a solid report, a publication I welcome.
But with a skim of the Executive Summary (the only part also available in Spanish or French), or a look at IUCN?s press release, or at various stories in the media from local Caribbean newspapers to Time Magazine, a rather different story emerges.  This one is far more about the value in protecting parrot fishes. 
The Guardian?s headline is typical:  ?Caribbean coral reefs ?will be lost within 20 years? without protection.  Major report warns that loss of grazing fish due to pollution and overfishing is a key driver of region?s coral decline.? 
IUCN?s own press release begins: ?From despair to repair: Dramatic decline of Caribbean corals can be reversed.  With only about one-sixth of the original coral cover left, most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years, primarily due to the loss of grazers in the region?? 
Whether the authors intended it or not (and I suspect they did not), a detailed, difficult, somewhat depressing tale, but with sound and constructive recommendations (including the protection of parrotfishes), has been morphed by IUCN and the media into an upbeat story about a Caribbean-wide serious problem which can be fixed by taking care of parrot fishes.  So much for the authors? warning about the ?folly? of expecting a single, simple cause of coral decline across the Caribbean.
If all the ostensibly no-take MPAs across the Caribbean were functional, we'd have plenty of parrot fishes.  If just one decently scaled experiment that enhanced herbivory had been run, or if just one of the governmental decisions to protect parrot fishes was implemented with appropriate BACI monitoring so there would be data to evaluate, we might actually know if restoring herbivory will push the system back through the phase shift (not a given)..  And, by the way, IUCN, you don't solve problems of coral disease or excessive tourism by protecting parrot fishes. 
Once again the simple and optimistic fairy tale has trumped telling the real story properly, and the world goes on spinning down while the science and conservation community looks on confused.  I KNOW we can do a lot better.
Maybe I am catching Gene Shinn?s ?curmudgeon? disease?
Peter Sale
University Professor Emeritus
University of Windsor
sale at uwindsor.ca                 @PeterSale3
www.uwindsor.ca/sale           www.petersalebooks.com
 



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 10:53:21 +0500
From: Barbara Gratzer <barbaragratzer at gmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Marine water test kits
To: Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <48707785-646B-43AF-95FA-41E7BA7B4A23 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=utf-8

Dear coral-listers, 

It would be great to receive some help in the following matter. 
Working as a marine biologist and reef manager in Maldives, I am looking for some test kits, which are easy to handle and low in cost. 
Test kits should allow for testing the following parameters:
Calcium
pH Value
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Refractometer for salinity
Alkalinity
And eventually also tests for these parameters:
Strontium
Iodine
Magnesium
E.coli
I read that test kits from seifert are quite reliable. The problem is the shipping: not possible to Maldives in the online stores I have found. 

Does anyone have some recommendations for me?

Thank you very much in advance!

Warmest, 

Barbara Gratzer
Resident Marine Biologist
IUCN Maldives Marine Projects
CDE -Reethi Beach Resort
~~~ ?^^?> ~~~
mobile: +960 7645346
email: barbaragratzer at gmail.com





------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 09:35:24 -0400
From: "Szmant, Alina" <szmanta at uncw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy
	tales
To: Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>, "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov"
	<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
	<68ECDB295FC42D4C98B223E75A854025DAA8544D08 at uncwexmb2.dcs.uncw.edu>
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Hi Peter:

I have not read this report yet, but I have heard from a couple of colleagues close to this issue that Jackson's downplaying of the role of climate change (and to be more precise, extreme warming events...aka global warming) in the Caribbean really ignores that major factors, the overriding factors, in Caribbean coral reef decline.  I think there is a critique of this report in prep by well recognized Caribbean coral reef scientists. While herbivory is obviously a critical process on coral reefs and I totally support protection of parrotfishes and other herbivores: common sense, looking around the Caribbean and the experimental study of Williams and Polunin (2001) show that there are not enough parrotfishes/herbivores out there to eat all the algae on a reef with less than 10 % cover.  Loss of parrotfishes did not cause bleaching and disease outbreaks.  Even major coastal development did not cause much coral mortality compared to the 1987, 1998, 2005 bleaching events to list  just a few of the most dramatic ones.  The Florida Keys has lots of parrotfishes (they are not preferred food for Americans) and there are plenty of algae in spite of huge herds of midnights, blues and acanthurids, as well as stoplights, red band and the smaller species.  

Human nature is not to bother until there is a crisis...the worse the crisis the more we respond.  We don't do much about "well this could be a problem in a few years.." which is why most coral reef 'management' and conservation efforts have failed...no urgency! In the case of coral reefs, the case for urgency has not been made well.  On the other hand, decisions about changing our global economy away from fossil fuels to renewables and to stop deforestation, and to slow and reverse human population growth/size, and to changes our patterns of consumption away from consumerism and meat eating will not be made because of our concern for coral reefs alone.  If you look around you (except for you Peter who live up in beautiful temperate forests), the natural terrestrial world is quickly disappearing to become part of the human footprint of urbanization and industrial agriculture.

Alina 



?Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.? Eleanor Roosevelt

?The time is always right to do what is right?? Martin Luther King

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Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Awardee Center for Marine Science University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin Moss Ln
Wilmington NC 28409 USA
tel:? 910-962-2362? fax: 910-962-2410? cell: 910-200-3913 http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
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-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Peter Sale
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 3:49 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy tales

Hi coral-listers,
In 2012, Roger Bradbury raised considerable ire amongst his coral reef buddies, by daring to paint a bleak picture of the state of the world so far as coral reef condition was concerned.  He used an Op-Ed in The New York Times to go contrary to the received wisdom that we must not tell people bad news because it only turns them off.  Far better to talk about the small glimpses of light: the rare MPA that works, the reef that mysteriously fails to bleach, the coral transplant project that seems to be replenishing reefs ? to talk about them even if they are transient as well as small.  This helps people feel better about life, while we gently convince them that the sky really is, for the most part, falling.  (As you may have guessed, I don?t subscribe to this orthodoxy, although I do recognize that there are good ways and less effective ways of conveying bad news.) As a recent example of this tendency to gloss reality with a glitter of false good news, consider the latest report on the state of the Caribbean (Jackson et al 2014).  We first heard about it also in 2012, when Jeremy Jackson presented some of the data at ICRS Cairns.  It is good to see IUCN has finally released it.
A careful read of this IUCN report provides abundant data, careful analyses, and sad conclusions on what has been happening to Caribbean reefs.  The science is well done.  The issue of loss of herbivory as a likely factor leading to the widespread massive overgrowth of macroalgae is appropriately reported, along with its cause ? a disease that nearly wiped out Diadema antillarum across the region in 1983 (Lessios et al 1984), and chronic overfishing which has decimated populations of herbivorous parrot fishes over most of the region.  Other important stressors, particularly the issues of too many tourists, coral diseases that were perhaps introduced in ballast water from outside the Caribbean, and various forms of pollution are also discussed.  Climate change turns out to have not yet had major impacts although those impacts are likely coming. 
The document also notes the absence of quality data and lack of uniform monitoring indices that make deciphering what has happened far more difficult than it should have been.  In my opinion, the authors fail to address the unfortunate lack of solid evidence for most of the causal processes inferred ? if management interventions had been routinely, and appropriately monitored we would be far more certain of the links between overfishing, pollution, algal growth, coral recruitment and coral disease than we are.  Still, the authors do a generally responsible job of assessing competing hypotheses..  They also state, quite clearly that ?the disparate reef histories clearly demonstrate the folly of attempting to understand the causes of coral reef decline for the entire Caribbean as a single ecosystem, an approach that ignores the enormous heterogeneity in environments and history of human and natural disturbance among different reef locations.?  With a careful read, this is a solid report, a publication I welcome.
But with a skim of the Executive Summary (the only part also available in Spanish or French), or a look at IUCN?s press release, or at various stories in the media from local Caribbean newspapers to Time Magazine, a rather different story emerges.  This one is far more about the value in protecting parrot fishes. 
The Guardian?s headline is typical:  ?Caribbean coral reefs ?will be lost within 20 years? without protection.  Major report warns that loss of grazing fish due to pollution and overfishing is a key driver of region?s coral decline.? 
IUCN?s own press release begins: ?From despair to repair: Dramatic decline of Caribbean corals can be reversed.  With only about one-sixth of the original coral cover left, most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years, primarily due to the loss of grazers in the region?? 
Whether the authors intended it or not (and I suspect they did not), a detailed, difficult, somewhat depressing tale, but with sound and constructive recommendations (including the protection of parrotfishes), has been morphed by IUCN and the media into an upbeat story about a Caribbean-wide serious problem which can be fixed by taking care of parrot fishes.  So much for the authors? warning about the ?folly? of expecting a single, simple cause of coral decline across the Caribbean.
If all the ostensibly no-take MPAs across the Caribbean were functional, we'd have plenty of parrot fishes.  If just one decently scaled experiment that enhanced herbivory had been run, or if just one of the governmental decisions to protect parrot fishes was implemented with appropriate BACI monitoring so there would be data to evaluate, we might actually know if restoring herbivory will push the system back through the phase shift (not a given)..  And, by the way, IUCN, you don't solve problems of coral disease or excessive tourism by protecting parrot fishes. 
Once again the simple and optimistic fairy tale has trumped telling the real story properly, and the world goes on spinning down while the science and conservation community looks on confused.  I KNOW we can do a lot better.
Maybe I am catching Gene Shinn?s ?curmudgeon? disease?
Peter Sale
University Professor Emeritus
University of Windsor
sale at uwindsor.ca                 @PeterSale3
www.uwindsor.ca/sale           www.petersalebooks.com
 


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