[Coral-List] Screed from Mike

Thu Mar 14 12:23:28 UTC 2024

Hi Mike,
 HAPPY BIRTHDAY
In a nutshell,  tHe very adaptations that enable corals to thrive make them
highly vulnerable to humans.
We have known this for, as you say, over 30 years with your contributions
at the forefront.
That's when we thought the responsible governing bodies would take notice
and DO SOMETHING.
But alas, population growth and human greed do not recognize the facts
you point them out, nor do they care.
Nor do they realize that reefs are desperately  trying to tell us something
really really important.
In contrast to humans, coral reefs play a long game, like for over 200
million years.
So, while I am not a betting person, I'd place my chips on corals over*
Homo sapiens* to be here when the Anthropocene is over.
Take care Mike and enjoy many more bottles of Chateau Risk.
All the best,
Phil

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 10:43 PM Risk, Michael via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

>    I had a birthday a few days ago, which made me do some thinking.
>
>     Here is what we know.
>
>    -reefs are in desperate shape, worldwide.
>
>    -the decline, in most instances, began mid-19th century, long before
>    heat stress had been invoked as a major factor.
>
>    -land-based stresses (LBSP) are a major threat.
>
>    -global warming, left unchecked, will slay every coral reef on the
>    planet.
>
>    -We knew about the declining reefs 30 years ago, we knew about CO2 and
>    climate for far longer-many thanks to Shell and Exxon, for their
>    climate models >50 years ago, showing the impacts. Pity they didn't
>    publicize their results.
>
>    Every week it seems there is some new idea that will "save the reefs:"
>    killing COTs with robots, saving holothurians, 3D-printing of fake
>    corals, breeding super corals that can live in hot polluted
>    oceans...though alarmingly, discussions around the root cause of reef
>    decline at the very sites of active restoration where it is clear that
>    water quality is insufficient to sustain coral reef ecosystems, remain
>    missing, with no effort to correct it.
>
>    So it is with a jaundiced eye that I view the present situation. Some
>    recent work has convinced me that we can no longer ignore the fact that
>    degradation of the ocean's water quality is a mortal enemy of
>    restoration, and if it continues to be ignored the battle to restore
>    coral reefs is already lost.
>
>    As an indication that this is more than my opinion, here are several
>    recent publications, as well as some old facts that support this point
>    of view.
>
>    There is ample evidence, from both the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean,
>    that reducing nutrient load on reefs improves their health (Kaneohe
>    Bay, Worthing Barbados, etc etc). Then there's that wonderful paper by
>    Tomascik et al, 1996: "Rapid coral colonization of a recent lava flow
>    following a volcanic eruption, Banda Islands, Indonesia." Coral reefs
>    15: 169-175, which I call "Zero to 60 in 5 (years)."  An andesitic lava
>    flow entered a bay, promptly dubbed "Air Panas" (Hot Water) by the
>    locals. Five years later, that flow supported a coral community with
>    >60% coral cover (the level most of us assume reefs attained in those
>    prelapsarian times before humans started messing things up), and >100
>    coral species. The key, of course, is that this location is free from
>    industry and major human habitation. The water is clean. Five years is
>    all that is needed to build a healthy reef-if.
>
>    May et al 2022 [1]https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278695 worked
>    on porewater toxicity in Biscayne Bay, using the sea urchin embryo
>    model. (Stick the little critters in the water, watch them die.) At
>    over 80% of their sites, the porewater was so toxic that any reef
>    growth would be impossible. All sorts of human nasties in the water:
>    sewage, pharmaceuticals, ag chemicals. Biscayne Bay isn't the world,
>    but it can serve as a model for any reef sitting on porous substrates,
>    next to human influence. i.e., most of them. That paper terrified
>    me-and it should terrify all of us.
>
>    Yang et al 2024 also scared me.
>    [2]https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46059-4They looked at the impacts
>    of herbicides on primary productivity, worldwide, and found a
>    significant inhibition at all sites. What's more, there were changes in
>    the plankton community. The concept of a reef being outside human
>    influence is hard to sustain.
>
>     Li et al 2023 ([3]https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139729)
>    investigated the synergistic effects of nitrogen enrichment and
>    pesticides (prometryn) on coral metabolism, and found significant
>    impairment. "Prometryn exposure increases the oxidative stress induced
>    by nitrate enrichment." (from the Abstract).
>
>     Zhou et al, 2024 ([4]https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c10417) showed
>    that...well, what they found is in the title. "Environmental
>    Concentrations of Herbicide Prometryn Render Stress-Tolerant Corals
>    Susceptible to Ocean Warming." The herbicide overwhelms the coral's
>    photosystem repair mechanism. What's worse is that the herbicide may
>    actively inhibit the coral's ability to recover from stress.
>
>    In light of these papers, among many others, can the current strategies
>    for coral reef restoration succeed without factoring water quality into
>    the restoration formula?
>
>    Yours, this lovely and too-early Spring-Mike
>
> References
>
>    1. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278695
>    2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46059-4
>    3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139729
>    4. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c10417
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>

-- 

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