[Coral-List] Bleaching refuges

Paul Muir paul.muir at qm.qld.gov.au
Mon Apr 4 19:50:52 EDT 2016


Thanks Robert & Co for interest,
Just to clarify: " bleaching events typically occur during very flat, calm conditions over just a few weeks which makes deploying floating covers such as this feasible".  
Idea is to deploy shade for just a few weeks during a high temperature/flat water event and only over very small areas of reef to protect small populations of breeding individuals in the event of a severe event (i.e. >99% mortality of a species) and thus speed reef recovery. The turbidity/tannins idea is interesting  - natural refugia of this type have recently being raised in the literature. The current GBR event is unlikely to be a 99% mortality event and it's a big, well connected system- but perhaps the next one or an event in a more isolated system.....

PAUL MUIR
Research Officer & Collections Manager, Corals
Qld Museum 

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bourke [mailto:rbourke at OCEANIT.COM] 
Sent: Tuesday, 5 April 2016 6:26 AM
To: Paul Muir; Damien Beri
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: RE: [Coral-List] Bleaching refuges

Paul;
  I have long advocated collaboration between marine ecologists, who understand biological problems, and engineers, who understand how to implement physical solutions.  Your concept of suspending a 100m x 100m sun-screen mat on the surface over a reef makes an excellent example of why it is important to coordinate with other fields.  The physical challenge associated with stabilizing such a structure over a period of months in the face of currents and breaking waves is quite enormous.  My guess is that the necessary damage that would be required merely to anchor such a structure would outweigh any benefits.  In addition, the damage that would result if such a structure were to break loose and entangle itself across the reef would be huge.
  That said, shading reefs may not be a bad temporary solution although the thought of repeating this every summer into the distant future is somewhat disturbing.  What about other alternatives to shading?  Researchers have shown, for example, that reefs off of mangrove shorelines are less susceptible to bleaching - presumably due to all of the tannins in the water.  You could test your theory by shading a portion of reef through the daily release of a non-toxic, non-sediment, turbidity substance into the water above the reef.
  Good luck!

Bob Bourke
Environmental Scientist
Oceanit
Hawaii

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Paul Muir
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2016 2:09 AM
To: Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Bleaching refuges

Just to clarify....Idea is to trial protecting SMALL ie <10000m2 areas of reef to prevent localised extinctions and speed recovery by providing a small population of breeding individuals of each species.  My understanding is that it's all about frequency of events (I.e. Bleaching/cyclones/hurricanes/ COTS) vs speed of recovery between these events. Just as a ps there's some new polyethylene shade cloth out now that floats on water- this might do better than the sola weave fabric originally suggested. 

Paul Muir
Research officer & collection manager, corals Queensland Museum


Sent from my iPhone

> On 4 Apr 2016, at 9:37 pm, "Damien Beri" <beridl at g.cofc.edu> wrote:
> 
> Carbon credits
> 
> As insidious as it is to sell the ability to pollute, cooperations that want to "reduce their carbon footprint" buy carbon credits. Immediate relief exceeds the long term problem in my opinion... for now.  Since scleractinians sequester CO2 they act as green house gas sinks/reservoirs/banks/investments and essentially are a continuous carbon credit principle.
> 
> If cloud seeding, or tarping the surface of the water saves X amount of corals, which go on to sequester Y amount more carbon then this is worth real money world wide.  So technically if a company saves coral, then they are sequestering CO2 and if they are sequestering CO2 then they are creating carbon credits, and if they are creating carbon credits they are making money... Which is what everyone cares about anyways, money. We care about these corals and so its symbiotic, both parties benefit.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Mar 31, 2016, at 5:58 PM, Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> In the U.S., there is a national law called the "Clean Water Act."  I believe the U.S. federal government Environmental Protection Agency is designated to enforce it.  Some states may have similar state laws and agencies.  I am not familiar enough with any of these to say whether they would cover this sort of thing, but they might.
>>    Cheers,  Doug
>> 
>>> On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 10:38 AM, Pedro M Alcolado <gmalcolado at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Funding should come from  environmental agencies in charge of 
>>> controlling land based pollution from rivers close to coral reefs.
>>> Indeed it is quite difficult to be achieved  being it a very 
>>> expensive and complex intervention. I think it is worth  to try to 
>>> demand cleaning or improving pollution control of such polluted 
>>> rivers by local or national relevant stakeholders and governmental 
>>> instances in charge. Do you have any other idea about achieving it in some degree?
>>> There are many examples of rivers where  luxuriant coral reefs 
>>> thrived very close to their mouth in the past.
>>> Pedro
>>> 
>>>> On 3/30/16, Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu> wrote:
>>>> I agree, where would funding come from?
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>> 
>>>>> On Mar 29, 2016, at 4:03 PM, Douglas Fenner 
>>>>> <douglasfennertassi at gmail..com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Paul,
>>>>>   Well said, thank you very much for this idea.  I think this idea 
>>>>> is a good one, and well worth trying.  We don't seem to have any other options
>>>>> at this point, and it could well work.     Cheers, Doug
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 12:40 PM, Paul Muir 
>>>>>> <paul.muir at qm.qld.gov.au>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I proposed this idea many years ago (~2005!) on coral list and am 
>>>>>> wondering if anyone ever tried anything like this? Given the 
>>>>>> current bleaching on the northern GBR and likelihood of other 
>>>>>> areas being hit soon perhaps it's worth someone doing a trial? 
>>>>>> Desperate times..
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Severe coral bleaching events can cause very high levels of coral 
>>>>>> morality and the recovery of reefs following such events can be 
>>>>>> very slow. For example, recovery of corals in the Seychelles 
>>>>>> Islands following the severe
>>>>>> 1998 bleaching event was extremely slow and regional extinction 
>>>>>> of some species a possibility. Localised extinctions and slow 
>>>>>> recovery could be mitigated if small areas of reef were protected during bleaching events:
>>>>>> corals have extremely high  fecundity and only a few healthy 
>>>>>> individuals of each species would needed to accelerate recovery. 
>>>>>> Field observations and studies of the physiology of coral 
>>>>>> bleaching suggest that shading corals during a high temperature 
>>>>>> event can reduce mortality rates. Small areas of reef (to 
>>>>>> 10,000m2 area) could be provided with moderate shading by the use 
>>>>>> of floating covers similar to those used in farm dams and 
>>>>>> industrial ponds.
>>>>>> Such covers are light, float upon the water surface and could be 
>>>>>> rapidly deployed from a small boat during a high-temperature 
>>>>>> event. The covers would be held in place with small anchors and 
>>>>>> inflatable seams would provide a flexible, semi-rigid structure 
>>>>>> that would resist small waves and swells at a protected site. 
>>>>>> High temperature bleaching events typically occur during very 
>>>>>> flat, calm conditions over just a few weeks which makes deploying 
>>>>>> floating covers such as this feasible. Real-time monitoring of 
>>>>>> the development of bleaching conditions and small-scale 
>>>>>> engineering solutions may become increasingly important for the 
>>>>>> preservation of thermally sensitive species at local scales.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I can supply some ideas for a test-scale floating cover on request.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Dr. Paul Muir
>>>>>> Research Officer/ Collection Manager Corals, Biodiversity & 
>>>>>> Geosciences Program
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Museum of Tropical Queensland | Queensland Museum
>>>>>> 70 - 102 Flinders Street | Townsville | Queensland 4810 | 
>>>>>> Australia t +61 7 47 260 642 | f +61 7 47 212 093 | m +61 407 117 
>>>>>> 998 | www.qm.qld.gov.au
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Affiliate, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland 
>>>>>> ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Staghorn Corals Website
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Douglas Fenner
>>>>> Consultant, corals, coral reefs, coral identification "have 
>>>>> regulator, will travel"
>>>>> PO Box 7390
>>>>> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>>>>> 
>>>>> phone 1 684 622-7084
>>>>> 
>>>>> Join the International Society for Reef Studies.  Membership 
>>>>> includes a subscription to the journal Coral Reefs, and there are 
>>>>> discounts for pdf subscriptions and developing countries.  Check 
>>>>> it out!  www.fit.edu/isrs/
>>>>> 
>>>>> "Belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."- Jim 
>>>>> Beever.
>>>>> "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own
>>>>> facts."-
>>>>> Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Record shattering February warmth bakes Alaska, Arctic 18oF
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/13/3759569/record-februar
>>>>> y-warmth-alaska-arctic/
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sea level is now rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years.
>>>>> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/sea-levels-are-rising-their
>>>>> -fastest-rate-2000-years?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=170
>>>>> 45989&et_cid=292592 
>>>>> http://mashable.com/2016/02/22/manmade-sea-level-rise-flooding/#fs
>>>>> cPLGedCiqz
>>>>> 
>>>>> Miami is flooding: "The Siege of Miami, as temperatures rise, so 
>>>>> will sea levels."  Sea level rising an inch a year there.
>>>>> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
>>>>> 
>>>>> website:  http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
>>>>> 
>>>>> blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>>>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Douglas Fenner
>> Consultant, corals, coral reefs, coral identification "have 
>> regulator, will travel"
>> PO Box 7390
>> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>> 
>> phone 1 684 622-7084
>> 
>> Join the International Society for Reef Studies.  Membership includes 
>> a subscription to the journal Coral Reefs, and there are discounts 
>> for pdf subscriptions and developing countries.  Check it out!  
>> www.fit.edu/isrs/
>> 
>> "Belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."- Jim Beever.   "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts..."- Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
>> 
>> Solar can power more than 100 times America's current electricity 
>> needs, a new report finds
>> 
>> http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/news-and-blogs/solar-can-po
>> wer-more-than-100-times-americas-current-electricity-needs-new-report
>> -finds
>> 
>> Record shattering February warmth bakes Alaska, Arctic 18oF
>> 
>> http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/13/3759569/record-february-w
>> armth-alaska-arctic/
>> 
>> Sea level is now rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years.
>> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/sea-levels-are-rising-their-fa
>> stest-rate-2000-years?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=17045989&
>> et_cid=292592 
>> http://mashable.com/2016/02/22/manmade-sea-level-rise-flooding/#fscPL
>> GedCiqz
>> 
>> website:  http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
>> 
>> blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
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