[Coral-List] Florida coral restoration in hot water
Douglas Fenner
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
Thu Feb 15 01:10:28 UTC 2024
The formula for calcium carbonate is CaCO3. So coral reef geological
structures have carbon sequestered in them. So intuitively, when reef
geological structures are built by the laying down of CaCO3, that should
lock up carbon, which should reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Unfortunately,
the process of producing CaCO3 also releases CO2, paradoxically. The
chemistry is outlined in the following reference:
Ware, J. R., Smith, S. V., and Reaka-Kudla M. L. 1992. Coral reefs: sources
or sinks of atmospheric CO2? *Coral Reefs* 11: 127-130.
When CO2 is added to the atmosphere, there is a natural, geological process
that removes it. And that is the weathering of rocks. Weathering of rocks
such as granite, basalt, andesite, and many others, is the oxidation and
hydration of the minerals in the rock. Small amounts of CO2 in the
atmosphere dissolve in rain droplets, making them slightly acid. When rain
falls on exposed rock surfaces, it reacts with the minerals, using up CO2
and forming stable minerals. The acid is weak and the process slow. It is
faster where heavy rainfall and steep slopes combine to produce rapid
erosion, exposing more rock, and faster where temperatures are higher (many
chemical reactions are faster at higher temperatures). A place like the
New Guinea highlands is nearly ideal for this. But the process is slow.
CO2 has a lifetime in the atmosphere of thousands of years. If we were to
stop emitting any CO2 tomorrow (which is impossible), the world will
continue to warm and stay warm for thousands of years (and continuing to
melt ice in glaciers and ice caps). Mind you, the warming would be much
less than if we continue to emit CO2, reductions in CO2 emissions reduce
how much more warming there will be. Weathering of rock will eventually
bring the CO2 level in the atmosphere back down allowing a decrease in
surface temperatures, but that will take at least thousands of years. No
help for our present problems for coral reefs and many other things.
There have been suggestions that if people ground up vast amounts of
rock into sand, thus vastly increasing the surface area of the rock, and
spread it over huge areas of land (preferably in warm, high rainfall
areas), the process of using up CO2 by weathering would be sped up. My
thought is that it would take a huge amount of energy to grind all those
rocks up, and there is the question of mining the rock and where to spread
the sand and transporting it and spreading it. It is a geoengineering
idea, and there are other geoengineering ideas. The costs and benefits of
which are likely being studied but my impression is that the risks of some
of them are significant.
Those with more expertise in these areas, please weigh in and
clarify the many points. I think it is worth the effort for people to
better understand these things, myself included.
Cheers, Doug
On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 5:55 AM International Coral Reef Observatory via
Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> Dear Michael,
>
> It is worthy that you share on the Coral List the whole link or DOI of your
> cited May et al, 2022, PLOS One. They tested
> pore water contained in the interstices/pore space of aquatic sediments in
> Biscayne Bay for toxicity.
>
> Recently I read on linkedin a comment for the International Coral Reef
> Initiative, about the inconvenience for restoration practitioners, that
> scientists report findings that may put at risk their funding for their
> coral restoration projects...
>
> Specifically, the restoration practitioners fear from scientists who
> support that Coral reefs are sources of CO2 instead of Sinks. Their
> argument, similar to the one of "saving coral reefs actively by funding
> restoration projects'' , is based on the fact that there is a lot of money
> that will be lost from Net Zero goals GRANTS and Coral Reefs according to
> the interest of some coral restoration practitioners should not be called
> "$ource$ but $ink$ of CO2".
>
> I replied to that comment mentioning that degraded coral reefs are behaving
> as sinks because they already have higher macro algae cover than coral
> cover in polluted areas. Nevertheless, the convenience to use the money
> from Blue Bonds (etc) should be objective to improve coral reef
> conservation effectiveness by mainly stopping IMMEDIATELY causes of
> degradation e.g. local and global pollution. The money should be
> prioritized to real effective solutions, not to be wasted just in more
> scaling up experiments (that have not worked even locally) and there is
> plenty of funding and NEEDS to address the Loss of Native Biodiversity
> relevant issue within the crisis of the OCEAN.
>
> The more effective coral reef general scientific society will be the one
> that is strong enough to base recommendations on scientific facts and
> basic ecological knowledge, not just on the personal business of some
> restoration practitioners !!
>
> Cordially
> *Nohora Galvis*
> *Director*
> *International Coral Reef Observatory, ICRO*
> *UN DOALOS Expert*
> *ICRS World Reef Award*
>
>
> El vie, 9 feb 2024 a las 21:17, Risk, Michael via Coral-List (<
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>) escribió:
>
> > I would urge everyone to read May et al, 2022, PLOS One. They tested
> > porewater in Biscayne Bay for toxicity, using the sea urchin embryo
> > bioassay. They found toxic porewater at 22 of 25 sites.
> >
> > No reef recovery will be possible until the water is cleaned up.
> >
> > I'm sorry-is there an echo in here?
> > __________________________________________________________________
> >
> > From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf
> of
> > Steve via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2024 10:45 PM
> > To: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Florida coral restoration in hot water
> >
> > Caution: External email.
> > Hi Doug,
> > After reading that article, the quote below the title caught my eye
> for
> > a second time.
> > "Additional risky measures are now called for, unless we just want to
> > give up," one scientist says
> > Are those our only alternatives?
> > Additional "risky measures" or giving up?
> > Here's a quote I'd like to see instead.
> > "In light of recent developments, we can either give up or devote our
> > energies to cleaning up our oceans; reducing carbon emissions and
> > trying our best to recreate the conditions that allowed corals and
> > other forms of marine life to flourish in the first place".
> > Thanks for all your posts!
> > Steve
> > Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
> > On 2/8/24, 5:51PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List
> > <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> > After mass coral die-off, Florida scientists rethink plan to save
> > ailing
> > reefs
> > After unprecedented heat wave killed transplanted coral, reef experts
> > are
> > charting a new strategy
> > [1]
> https://www.science.org/content/article/after-mass-coral-die-off-flo
> > rida-scientists-rethink-plan-to-save-ailing-reefs
> > Could this be a window into the future for much of the world's reefs??
> > Cheers, Doug
> > --
> > Douglas Fenner
> > Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> > NOAA Fisheries Service
> > Pacific Islands Regional Office
> > Honolulu
> > and:
> > Coral Reef Consulting
> > PO Box 997390
> > Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
> > Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic
> > growth.
> > Nature 624: 519-521.
> > [2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
> > Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
> > [3]
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-million
> > s-200000257.html
> > World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
> > [4]https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
> > Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
> > [5]
> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrost
> > ates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
> > "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of
> > the
> > century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening
> > hot
> > climates" Will you be in that area???
> > [6]
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-probl
> > em-123000792.html
> > World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
> > TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The
> > subsidies
> > MUST end.
> > [7]
> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsid
> > ies-must-end/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > [8]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > _______________________________________________
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> > [9]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
> > References
> >
> > 1.
> >
> https://www.science.org/content/article/after-mass-coral-die-off-florida-scientists-rethink-plan-to-save-ailing-reefs
> > 2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
> > 3.
> >
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
> > 4. https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
> > 5.
> >
> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
> > 6.
> >
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
> > 7.
> >
> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
> > 8. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > 9. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
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