[Coral-List] Acropora alternative opinion

John McManus jmcmanus at rsmas.miami.edu
Wed Oct 10 12:19:29 EDT 2007


Some of those nasty surprises would likely include:

1. Increasing damage from storms (Acropora can reproduce by fragmentation,
but with low frequencies of success -- so too much damage is a losing
proposition).
2. Increasing runoff and pollution impinging on coral communities via
	a. rising sea level enhancing erosion
	b. storm damage enhancing runoff
	c. changing climates negatively impacting agriculture, leading to
more fertilization, erosion, and 	deforestation (often something
farmers turn to in times of economic stress, along with fishing)

With regard to corals, there are many more bad impacts than good ones on the
horizon. 

Cheers!

John  

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Douglas Fenner
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 5:28 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Acropora alternative opinion

If global warming increases water temperatures sufficiently, most or all the
Acropora in the Caribbean could be dead, and a band of latitudes equal to
that of the Caribbean on the east coast of the United States could become
suitable habitat and colonized by Acropora.  But note the wide range of
longitude in the Caribbean, while the same range of longitude for suitable
habitat on the east coast of the US could be measured in meters instead of
thousands of kilometers.  The net loss of available habitat in this sort of
trade would be truly enormous.  Not a trade we should condone.  Besides,
tinkering with Mother Nature has a way of coming up with nasty surprises.
   -Douglas Fenner
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