[Coral-List] Scientists from Rio Grande do Sul/ RS, South Extreme of Brazil, create "test tube coral" to repopulate destroyed reef areas. II. Additional informations !

Sat Dec 30 00:51:53 UTC 2023

        It is commonly said that about half of the world's reefs are dead.
By that, I presume they mean that most of the corals on half the reefs are
dead.  But just because large numbers of corals have died, which is not
disputed, does not mean that only half of the number of corals that used to
be alive are now alive.  Yes, those that died will continue to be dead.
But those that are alive may still be able to reproduce.  I think coral
reefs have an amazing ability to recover, so long as humans stop abusing
them with sediment runoff, nutrient runoff, overfishing, mass coral
bleaching from high temperatures, and a long list of other things.
      I suggest that people take a look at the graphs of coral cover on the
Great Barrier Reef.  In the northern and southern sections, indeed huge
numbers of corals died.  BUT, then coral cover rebounded and it is now as
high as it has ever been since monitoring there began.  Not every reef
recovers, maybe half those in the Seychelles that were killed by bleaching
have not recovered.  Jamaica's corals that were killed about 43 years ago
have never recovered.  That remains a great threat to reefs worldwide, but
it hasn't happened on most reefs YET.
       Indeed, all the predictions I know of are for the devastation of
corals in the coming decades if we don't get emissions reduced and global
warming under control.  But that doesn't mean that we have lost half of the
world's corals already.
        Take a look at the graphs of world coral cover over time.  There
are currently 2 such graphs available, they aren't identical, both show
some decline, but not a 50% decline with any certainty.   The GCRMN graph
shows a decline from about 32% to 28%.  The Eddy et all paper shows a
decrease from about 60 or 70% to 26%, but you have to trust the very few
early points or the memories of older researchers to believe the earliest
data, both of which have significant weaknesses.  If you remove the early
points and the memories of the older researchers, you get a starting value
of only about 35%.  The earliest records of coral cover were very few and
far between, and monitoring programs usually don't pick sites randomly and
people have strong biases towards high coral cover sites.  There is a high
probability that the first monitoring sites were chosen for their high
coral cover.  There are now at least 3 or 4 ORDERS of Magnitude more sites
in present-day monitoring than when monitoring first started (take a look
at the graph of the number of sites by year in the GCRMN report, they go
from near zero at the beginning to very high at the end.  Every graph of
coral cover over time for large areas that shows the sample sizes over time
shows huge increases in the numbers of sample sites.).  Small samples are
much more subject to random effects and may be heavily subject to bias,
which we ALL have (i love live coral, how about you?).
        I'm reminded of the phrase attributed to Mark Twain after a
newspaper reported his death:  "My death has been greatly exaggerated."
Maybe the ongoing decline of coral reefs is being exaggerated a bit.  I
think we need to stick as closely as possible to the facts.  There can be
NO argument that humans are not damaging coral reefs, the evidence
supporting that assertion is overwhelming.  It is bad enough as it is
without us exaggerating it even more.  And with the next big disturbance
(like world wide mass bleaching) there is NO guarantee the reefs will
bounce back.  AND the disturbances, like heat waves, are coming more and
more often, and soon there will not be enough time for recovery, and each
new disturbance will cause coral deaths that add to the previous ones, in a
"ratchet" effect, as Chuck Birkeland has rightly pointed out.
       Corals are still in VERY deep trouble.
Cheers, Doug

https://www.aims.gov.au/reef-monitoring/gbr-condition-summary-2020-2021

https://gcrmn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Executive-Summary-with-Forewords.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221004747

On Fri, Dec 29, 2023 at 3:32 AM Ignacio Agudo via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Dear collegues & friends,
>
> Continuing with some additional recent information, ... scientists estimate
> that half of the planet's coral reefs have already died and the prognosis
> for the rest is not the most optimistic. If nothing is done to contain
> global warming, more than 90% of them could be at critical risk of
> extinction by 2050, according to a report from the World Resources
> Institute (WRI).
>
> “... Each year, mortality on coral reefs becomes more intense. The idea of
> the project is to work on proposals to counteract this destruction and
> create tools that guarantee the perpetuity of species in a scenario in
> which the ocean is increasingly hotter ...”, says the project's technical
> coordinator, "Leandro Cesar de Godoy", specialized in biotechnologies
> applied to the reproduction of aquatic organisms and professor at the
> Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), one of the few scientists
> in the world who study cryogenics (conservation of life at low
> temperatures) with a focus on the conservation of corals.
>
> The research is divided into two parts: freezing gametes – which are the
> sex cells of corals (sperm and eggs) – and artificial fertilization in the
> laboratory. The objective is to understand the details of these cells and
> develop specific freezing, thawing and reproduction protocols for each
> coral species. Initially, studies are being carried out with "Mussimilia
> harttii", a species of coral that exists only in Brazil.
>
> “We have around 40 species of shallow water corals in the country. However,
> stony corals, which are those that form a calcium carbonate skeleton, are
> only 17. Among these, there are four species of brain corals belonging to
> the genus "Mussimilia" that are the main builders of reefs on the Brazilian
> coast. The species "M. harttii" was also chosen because it is already on
> the list of endangered species.”
>
> "Mussimilia harttii" is a hermaphrodite species – that is, the same
> individual produces eggs and sperm –, with a reproductive peak between the
> months of September and November. It is during this window that researchers
> go into the field, on the south coast of Bahia, and collect specimens of
> the animal. These are taken to nurseries at the Living Coral Research Base,
> where they are kept in the same sea conditions until they begin the
> spawning process.
>
> Animal reproduction is associated with the New Moon phase. In this way,
> researchers are able to estimate, with certain precision, when the gametes
> will be released. They are released by the corals inside an enclosure (like
> a capsule) about 1.5 centimeters in diameter. Each of these “capsules”
> contains billions of sperm and hundreds of eggs .........
>
> .... _@/"
> Additional (Portuguese Brazil) new journalistic report:
>
> https://ciclovivo.com.br/inovacao/tecnologia/brasil-tecnologia-pioneira-corais-de-proveta/?fbclid=IwAR0m5GLlnbaIebisXG4vbWBlhI6QAPUvyy3qTCVxGxvkZFnGkaEd9dCiNqw
>
>
> _@/"
> Previous journalistic report presented:
>
> https://g1.globo.com/rs/rio-grande-do-sul/noticia/2023/12/27/cientistas-do-rs-criam-coral-de-proveta-para-repovoar-areas-de-recifes-destruidas.ghtml?fbclid=IwAR1zkJ0FkhMdd720Badjci1lAkbljpYYZP9lQv6UwANQLLE9li5UM25UI6I
>
> Renewed best regards ... and Happy New Year 2024,
>
> IGNACIO AGUDO
> Latin American Cnidarian Network Member Brazil
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/1391001107824116/posts/2772336899690523
>
>
> --
> *A. Ignacio Agudo-Padrón*
> Geographer, Environmental Researcher Malacologist
> *CEO & Manager Editor **AM Platform*
> Project "Avulsos Malacológicos - AM"
> Southern Brazil  *_@/"*
> Caixa Postal (P.O. Box) 22008, AC Dias Velho,
> Jardim Atlântico, Florianópolis,
> CEP 88095971, Santa Catarina/ SC,
> Brasil
> E-mail: ignacioagudo at gmail.com
> Curriculum: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3951358740536805
> Website: http://noticias-malacologicas-am.webnode.pt/
> Facebook:
>
> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Avulsos-Malacol%C3%B3gicos-AM/293465304090756
>
> E-book:
>
> http://issuu.com/espacocientificolivre/docs/moluscosesaudepublicaemsantacatarina
> ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9073-9049
> ResearchGate - Contributions:
>
> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aisur_Agudo-Padron/publications?sorting=newest
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list