[Coral-List] Toward a New Era of Coral Reef Monitoring
Andrew Ross
ross.andrew at mac.com
Fri Apr 21 19:17:27 UTC 2023
List,
Apologies, re-reading this it sounds a little pro-sewage or that these gross-good sites are normal rather than anomalies, which is not at all my intent. I’m simply sharing my experience as an asterisk to the big statement.
Worth also noting is that we’re seeing a bit of what looks like good ol' rapid-onset white plague disease in Acropora palmata, possibly related to heavy rain events and springs/sewage. Bad water.
Andrew
> On Apr 21, 2023, at 10:07 AM, Andrew Ross via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> Good morning Jianna & all,
> That quoted statement is broadly true & better water is certainly better, but there’s a lot of complexity, nuance & oddity to be considered as Phil has noted. The word “never” gives me hives…
> I work mostly in & around Montego Bay, Jamaica. Some of our sites are quite yucky, chronic ear-infection yucky, yet the corals (including cultured corals) are doing fine but for the usual predatory/ecological imbalances (overfishing), which we can mitigate with hand-picking for the short to medium terms. These sites also appear to be partial SCTLD refuges, retaining species largely extirpated from this coastline including arguably/relatively clean-water sites. Next-to-no Diadema mortality last year, either. Others also report strong coral populations in chronically polluted bays - Hawaii comes to mind just now, but there are plenty of examples.
> Hawaii might, but we don’t tend to get funded to formally test water-quality beyond temperature loggers. More & better data would certainly be better, and maybe not for the expected reasons.
> Best regards,
> Andrew
>
>> On Apr 19, 2023, at 7:39 PM, jianna wankel via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>> "Everyone is focusing on restoration but corals will never thrive in
>> polluted water."
>> This stood out to me... The coral isn't the problem. It is the water. We
>> should be working on *water* restoration. It feels very hopeless. What can
>> I do as a young scientist?
>>
>> Jianna
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 10:23 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>>> Phil,
>>> THANK YOU!!! You hit the nail on the head. Scientists and agencies
>>> want to get attention and funding, and the way to do that is with shinny
>>> toys. Preferably expensive. In other words, technology. But the things
>>> that must be changed to save reefs require hard work with humans that don't
>>> want to change the things they are doing that are destroying the reefs.
>>> The big exception is probably global warming, where big technology, not
>>> having to do with coral reefs is needed to make the changes. Things like
>>> renewable energy, electric cars, etc.
>>> Cheers, Doug
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 4:59 AM Phillip Dustan via Coral-List <
>>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Amy,
>>>> Your team is organizing an amazing array of instrumentation to dial in
>>>> coral reef condition. The real question is what is going to be done
>>> about a
>>>> degrading reef when it is revealed.
>>>> In general, when people hear that a reef is being monitored they think
>>> some
>>>> remedial action will be triggered to "fix the problem".
>>>> As valuable as reefs are to humankind you'd think this might be the case
>>>> but in fact, history shows it has not been.
>>>> Take the Florida Keys for example. This reef system has been under attack
>>>> by humans for at least 100 years.
>>>> John Pennekamp's work got a small section of Key Largo "protected" which
>>>> resulted in hoards of divers dissenting upon the reefs.
>>>> In the 1970's thousands of anchors were ravaging the reefs and it took
>>> the
>>>> work of individuals to create serviceable moorings buoys.
>>>> The creation of a Marine Sanctuary increased business.
>>>> But we all knew it was the increasing sewage that was causing the major
>>>> problems but
>>>> Then the major herbivores dropped out and the weeds, fertilized by
>>> sewage,
>>>> began to over grow the reef.
>>>> Individual people started monitoring in the 70's and a Keyswide
>>> monitoring
>>>> system was put in place in the mid 1990's
>>>> The investigators measured a 38 percent loss of coral cover and 400%
>>>> increase in stations with disease in 4 calendar years.
>>>> Coral cover on reefs where monitoring had begun in the 1970's was
>>> showing a
>>>> 90%+ loss in coral cover.
>>>> Business continued to BOOM and the reefs continued to die.
>>>> Now the loss is blamed on climate change whereas, truth be told, most of
>>>> the death happened before climate change began to be a factor.
>>>> The sewer system that was installed is a failure because fresh wastewater
>>>> is buoyant.
>>>> New diseases are so virulent the corals must be placed in rescue aquaria
>>>> away from the reef.
>>>> Everyone is focusing on restoration but corals will never thrive in
>>>> polluted water.
>>>> A few years ago I was visiting DIscovery Bay where I had worked years
>>>> before.
>>>> ( see https://biospherefoundation.org/project/coral-reef-change/)
>>>> I told Leslie I was interested in how the reef had changed and he said,
>>>> "Phil, you don't have to dive to see the reef is dying, just look out and
>>>> see it's dark brown when it used to be golden".
>>>> So while we can build better gizzies to follow the dying reefs in ever
>>>> greater detail, unless we generate the political will to act it is all in
>>>> vain.
>>>> Maybe we should spend our energies and ever decreasing budgets on
>>> altering
>>>> human behaviors instead of building newer, faster, better resolving
>>>> platforms to watch the war in ever greater detail.
>>>> Most nations do not have the resources of a Wood's Hole or Scripps
>>>> Institute of Oceanography, or the need for nextgen monitoring platforms.
>>>> They need help with food, healthcare, sewage treatment, and education.
>>>> My friends and colleagues know I love technology and was one of the first
>>>> to monitor coral reefs using lines,video, and even satellites, but this
>>> is
>>>> not going to help the reefs anymore.
>>>> They are way past needing monitoring.
>>>> They need simple help: clean water, reduced pollution, reduced fishing
>>>> pressure, less tourists, and a cooler, higher pH ocean.
>>>> So congrats on developing a nexgen monitoring system but you may be
>>> wasting
>>>> your energy on something that is necessarily over complex and will not
>>>> accomplish what is needed.
>>>> Simply put, the very adaptations that have enabled coral reefs to thrive
>>> in
>>>> the clear, nutrient poor tropical seas makes them vulnerable to human
>>>> activities.
>>>> They are complex processes operating at levels of ecological efficiency
>>>> humans should strive to emulate- That would be true sustainability!
>>>> But, sadly, coral reefs will probably not thrive again until humans are
>>>> gone.
>>>> Phil
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Leslie, the retire gardener and I were sitting in the
>>>> breezeway reliving old times
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Apr 15, 2023 at 9:19 AM Amy Apprill via Coral-List <
>>>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello Coral List,
>>>>>
>>>>> Our team is pleased to share a new open-access perspective paper titled
>>>>> ‘Towards a New Era of Coral Reef Monitoring’ published in Environmental
>>>>> Science & Technology (2023, 57, 5117-5124).
>>>>>
>>>>> Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.2c05369
>>>>>
>>>>> Abstract: Coral reefs host some of the highest concentrations of
>>>>> biodiversity and economic value in the oceans, yet these ecosystems are
>>>>> under threat due to climate change and other human impacts. Reef
>>>> monitoring
>>>>> is routinely used to help
>>>>> prioritize reefs for conservation and evaluate the success of
>>>> intervention
>>>>> efforts. Reef status and health are most frequently characterized using
>>>>> diver-based surveys, but the inherent limitations of these methods mean
>>>>> there is a growing need for
>>>>> advanced, standardized, and automated reef techniques that capture the
>>>>> complex nature of the ecosystem. Here we draw on experiences from our
>>> own
>>>>> interdisciplinary research programs to describe advances in in situ
>>>>> diver-based and autonomous reef monitoring. We present our vision for
>>>>> integrating interdisciplinary measurements for select “case-study”
>>> reefs
>>>>> worldwide and for
>>>>> learning patterns within the biological, physical, and chemical reef
>>>>> components and their interactions. Ultimately, these efforts could
>>>> support
>>>>> the development of a scalable and standardized suite of sensors that
>>>>> capture and relay key data to assist in categorizing reef health. This
>>>>> framework has the potential to provide stakeholders with the
>>> information
>>>>> necessary to assess reef health during an unprecedented time of reef
>>>> change
>>>>> as well as restoration and intervention activities.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>> Amy Apprill, Yogesh Girdhar, T. Aran Mooney, Colleen M. Hansel, Matthew
>>>> H.
>>>>> Long, Yaqin Liu, W. Gordon Zhang, Jason Kapit, Konrad Hughen, Jeff
>>>> Coogan,
>>>>> and Austin Green
>>>>> Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>>>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Phillip Dustan PhD
>>>> Charleston SC 29424
>>>> 843-953-8086 office
>>>> 843-224-3321 (mobile)
>>>>
>>>> "When we try to pick out anything by itself
>>>> we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords
>>>> that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe. "
>>>> * John Muir 1869*
>>>>
>>>> *A Swim Through TIme on Carysfort Reef*
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPJE7UE6sA
>>>> *Raja Ampat Sustainability Project video*
>>>>
>>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR2SazW_VY&fbclid=IwAR09oZkEk8wQkK6LN3XzVGPgAWSujACyUfe2Ist__nYxRRSkDE_jAYqkJ7A
>>>> *Bali Coral Bleaching 2016 video*
>>>>
>>>> *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo
>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo>*
>>>> TEDx Charleston on saving coral reefs
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwENBNrfKj4
>>>> Google Scholar Citations:
>>>> https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HCwfXZ0AAAAJ
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>> _______________________________________________
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