[Coral-List] Decline of Red Sea coral reefs

Tue Mar 12 15:12:27 UTC 2024

Hi Rupert,

Yes, the comment you made below is correct based on my experiences and those of the local scientists and divers I spoke with, and I think this point is also made in the video.  Mass bleaching and fatality due to climate change has been moving northward in the Red Sea at a very rapid rate. The video shows recently dead reefs on the Saudi side off Al Lith from 2017 (these had died within 2 years of the video) and the effects of bleaching on the Egyptian side near Marsa Alam are shown between 2019 (excellent health) and 2023 (considerable loss of coral cover).  The video link is here:
https://youtu.be/_-v7s4eBok0

I expect that reefs further north have been spared, although the last time I recorded reefs off Hurghada and the Tiran Islands was August 2021. That video link is here:
https://youtu.be/GH6YruI29cc

Let us hope that the northern-most Red Sea reefs remain unaffected by high temperature events.

Regards,

Joe

**************************************************************
Joseph R. Pawlik
Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology
Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
UNCW Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC  28409
Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
Video Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
**************************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Rupert Ormond via Coral-List
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 7:16 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Decline of Red Sea coral reefs

[This email originated from outside of UNCW]

Dear Joe, Austin, et al.

Apologies for the slow response, but a comment, for info, about the report of bleaching in the Saudi Red Sea. One needs to distinguish between different parts of the Red Sea in discussing likelihood of bleaching.

There is a very large temperature gradient over 2000 km from north to south. The northern end is not even in the tropics and rarely experiences temperatures more than about 27DegC. Indeed temperature today in Aqaba is 21.3. This is the area highlighted as unlikely to bleach in the immediate future.

Parts of the southern Red Sea in contrast regularly experienced near bleaching type temperatures (> 30degC) during the summer even prior to recent climate change, and I occasionally experienced >33degC even in the 1970s.

cheers, Rupert

Rupert Ormond
Co-Director, Marine Conservation International Hon. Professor, Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Editor REEF ENCOUNTER (news journal of the International Coral Reef Society)

On 26/02/2024 19:14, Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List wrote:
> Dear Joseph,
>
> Based on what I see here in the South Pacific, I agree 100% with your
> conclusions; that even the coral reefs we expected to be doing the
> very best in the face of climate change, are now collapsing due to
> warming seas.  There is indeed very little runoff and low fishing
> pressure on these Red Sea Reefs, especially as compared to most
> Caribbean and IndoPacific reefs.  Certainly oil spills and pollution
> related to shipping have been chronic and not something new, and
> mostly minor and not a forcing factor, so they can not be blamed on the sudden and recent demise of these reefs.
>
> The Chagos, Phoenix and Line Islands are also in this category of
> extreme impacts from bleaching and virtually none from pollution or overfishing.
> While many of these degraded reefs of pristine waters continue to be
> dominated by dead coral rock, a few reports have come out on these
> reefs loudly celebrating "recovery" of these systems, however these
> reports have glossed over the fact that although coral cover has
> indeed recovered, coral biodiversity has not, as the reefs have become
> dominated by one or very few species, with multiple local extinctions
> or near extinctions of Acropora and other species.
>
> With the global thermal anomaly of +0.7C or which occurred in 2023
> continuing, we have now gone over the edge.
> https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/    Very quickly now we will
> see that bleaching and mass coral death due to marine heat waves will
> begin to outstrip all other factors in coral reef decline.  With mass
> coral die-offs, all progress with MPAs and pollution control are swept
> away.  But as long as there are some coral larvae, the consolation is
> that these better managed reefs might recover more quickly?
>
> We have entered a new reality that most of us will have a hard time
> embracing.  Most coral reefs of the Caribbean experienced 20 Degree
> Heating Weeks and some even went to 25 DHW. last summer.  And we are
> now entering a springtime with record heat levels in the region, with
> Tobago predicted to be at bleaching warning stage in 9-12 weeks!
> https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/product/vs/gauges/leeward_caribbean.php
>   So unless a series of early hurricanes forms and continues to form
> in the tropical Atlantic, it looks like this coming summer has the
> potential to be as bad or worse than last summer.  So are you ready?
>
> I strongly believe that it is time that we embrace our new reality,
> realize that the situation will worsen very quickly now, and that if
> we do not begin active coral-focused measures to keep coral species
> alive and in genetically diverse condition, that we are going to lose
> them, reef by reef, nation by nation.  I know it is difficult to
> imagine our reefs experiencing 25-27 DHW, but that is now an actual
> danger!  It is time to face this new reality and to develop plans and
> actions to keep corals alive, species by species, and in the ocean.  I
> have some ideas on how to do this:  In 2016, I began working with the
> coral reefs of Kiritimati Atoll (Christmas Atoll), on the equator, just south of Hawaii.
> Kiritimati is the clear leader globally for being the most severely
> impacted of all coral reefs by bleaching, with 27 DHW experienced in
> 2015-16.   After seeing the severe impacts and local extinctions of so many
> coral species, my question was this: what could we have done to prevent the
> coral extinctions that occurred?   I came up with some answers, and I
> launched these ideas and strategies as "Reefs of Hope", with pilot
> sites in six Pacific Island nations.  The good news is that Reefs of
> Hope has just this month been endorsed by UNESCO as an Ocean Decade Action:
> https://oceandecade.org/actions/reefs-of-hope/    I think this makes Reefs
> of Hope the first UN-endorsed corla-focused climate change adaptation
> strategy for coral reefs!
>
> An underlying assumption of the Reefs of Hope model is that even
> during the most severe of marine heat waves the open ocean generally
> does not get above 31-32C, 33C in the extreme.  We also assume that
> ocean facing reefs are generally cooler than nearshore reefs.
> Nearshore coral populations located on hot reef flats and in closed
> lagoons can easily take 31-33C and above without bleaching, however
> during severe marine heat waves these hot areas can really cook,
> reaching temperatures similar to the 38.4C recorded in Florida last
> summer.  So with mass bleaching we are also losing our greatest
> genetic treasures: the coral hosts, the symbionts, and the microbiomes
> present.  However, these same corals will do just fine if we can get
> them into cooler more oceanic waters beforehand.  So one of our Reefs
> of Hope strategies is hot to cooler translocation of corals at local scale in order to prevent their death during increasingly severe marine
> heat waves.   If we are too late, another method we use is to collect the
> few unbleached corals after mass bleaching events (when the waters
> begin to cool), to protect them from predators, using these corals to
> build the gene bank nurseries, later trimmed to create "nucleation
> patches" on the reef to reboot natural adaptation and recovery
> processes, as well as to restore effective sexual reproduction to declining coral species.
>
> I am not saying that we have all the answers, and we are still
> learning, but the answers we urgently need will only come with
> concerted actions and the sharing of knowledge.  It is time to work
> together and to develop regional and global strategies and programs.
> Every man for himself is not a good way to win a war.
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> https://www/.
> corals4conservation.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40uncw.edu%7C069b275
> 852b246c9092308dc42a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a078871ebf%7C0%7C0%7
> C638458514814148510%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIj
> oiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=spBQzPzJBP
> 9BEjNewJnBwBufcATxrnVbqpjmKNuMWcs%3D&reserved=0
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
> https://www/.
> mdpi.com%2F2673-1924%2F4%2F1%2F2%2Fpdf&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40uncw.e
> du%7C069b275852b246c9092308dc42a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a078871e
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> a=Al2wQRt%2BsPQNFXm7fl%2FQ1IXU5z7z8JEdeQlU68hxY4g%3D&reserved=0
> Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change
> adaptation
> strategies:https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%253
> A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBG0lqKciXAA&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlik
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> 7C%7C&sdata=GS9cr%2FT3eYmP9DeWVXJ1SmJrYyovFjX2gjpNMk5ghyY%3D&reserved=
> 0
> https://www/.
> globalgiving.org%2Fprojects%2Femergency-response-to-massive-coral-blea
> ching%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40uncw.edu%7C069b275852b246c9092308dc4
> 2a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a078871ebf%7C0%7C0%7C63845851481415897
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> %2FsVkNPwoGJ3b7%2FM%3D&reserved=0
> <https://www/
> .globalgiving.org%2Fprojects%2Femergency-response-to-massive-coral-ble
> aching%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40uncw.edu%7C069b275852b246c9092308dc
> 42a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a078871ebf%7C0%7C0%7C6384585148141625
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> Z0X2byI8M02ON0ok%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 2:50 AM Pawlik, Joseph via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> Greetings, list,
>>
>> More sad news about which you may not be aware: Red Sea coral reefs
>> are rapidly losing coral cover from south to north because of summer
>> high temperature events and unprecedented storms. Some of us had
>> hoped that these reefs were resistant to climate change impacts, but evidently not.
>>
>> Here is a video that shows the dramatic change in coral cover between
>> 2019 and 2023 (effects of 5 summers) on reefs south of Marsa Alam, Egypt.
>>
>> https://you/
>> tu.be%2F_-v7s4eBok0&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40uncw.edu%7C069b275852b24
>> 6c9092308dc42a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a078871ebf%7C0%7C0%7C6384
>> 58514814166185%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2
>> luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=d42iNFBGmWkvv
>> keH4d4Cn%2FcgcQ49tAY7zj0t5jd7%2B0M%3D&reserved=0
>>
>> Note the recently dead and toppled Porites lutea - many of these
>> heads are hundreds, if not thousands of years old.
>> The video also shows dead reefs south of Al Lith on the Saudi Arabian
>> side of the Red Sea - this is further south of the Egyptian reefs in
>> the first part of the video, and these reefs died before 2017.
>>
>> Important relative to recent discussions on this list is that these
>> tragic losses are due entirely to high temperature events - these
>> reefs are not impacted by human settlements or sources of pollution,
>> nor is there evidence of disease events.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> **************************************************************
>>
>> Joseph R. Pawlik
>>
>> Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology
>>
>> Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
>>
>> UNCW Center for Marine Science
>>
>> 5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
>>
>> Wilmington, NC  28409
>>
>> Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
>>
>> Website:http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
>>
>> PDFs:http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
>>
>> Video
>> Channel:https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%25
>> 2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2Fskndiver011&data=05%7C02%7Cpawlikj%40un
>> cw.edu%7C069b275852b246c9092308dc42a2f049%7C2213678197534c75af2868a07
>> 8871ebf%7C0%7C0%7C638458514814170405%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoi
>> MC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%
>> 7C&sdata=I9gOpsgxAsX81w9owBTHarH%2FrS6cwRdaYG1%2BfdUzsvo%3D&reserved=
>> 0
>>
>> **************************************************************
>>
>>
>>
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