[Coral-List] Grazing vs fertilization

[andrew ross]

All,
  I hear nothing of the double edged sword that is top-down grazing in the presence of plenty of nutrient: the boring/ bio-erosion aspect of reef dynamics.
  In terms of overall reef preservation/restoration there is more then just top or bottom... It's more of a 3-D set of dramas.
Even if the grazers turn out to be the great saviors of living, growing coral, based on what i see in Montego Bay the reef structure is still crumbling from within so long as the water is full of sponge food. And the urchins themselves are no angels.
  My two cents.
  Andrew 

DeeVon Quirolo <deevon at bellsouth.net> wrote:
  
James---anyone who knows me realizes that the bottom up theories of 
Dr. Brian Lapointe and others have been endorsed and implemented in 
Reef Relief's educational programs for the past twenty years......I 
was just saying that we should all come together and stop the eternal 
dialect of I'm right, you're wrong, when each side is equally sure 
they are 100% right. We all need to get over that and work together 
to save the remaining vestiges of reefs. Best, DeeVon


At 02:39 PM 10/10/2006, Dr. James M Cervino wrote:
>Dear Ilsa & Devon,
>
>Congrats on a thorough well put together manuscript! It is about time
>that these data are beginning to get published, I will use this for
>my class this next semester.
>
>The sad point is that the people that think urchin grazing and other
>dwindling herbivores/landscapers swimming on reef system control the
>algal lawns that smother corals. This says to the developers that
>claim "hey our point source" that is spewing secondary treated
>sewage out into a reef is not the reason for the reefs to become
>algal dominated, its because the spiny urchin died off that used to
>be a proficient landscaper and kept the corals "macro-algae free".
>
>Devon what I am not saying that top down controls are not
>significant, they are. However, what I am trying to say is that the
>levels of nutrients that induce algal blooms cannot be controlled
>with more grazers.
>
>Cheers, James
>
>--
>**************************************************
>Dr. James M. Cervino, MS, Ph.D.
>Marine Pathology
>Department of Biological & Health Sciences
>Pace University New York NYC
>Phone: (917) 620-5287
>Web site: http://www.globalcoral.org
>***************************************************
>_______________________________________________
>Coral-List mailing list
>Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list

_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list


 		
---------------------------------
Get your email and more, right on the  new Yahoo.com