[Coral-List] Coral_List post: new editorial on coral demise in the Florida Keys published in Marine Pollution Bulletin

[Curt Storlazzi]

Coral_List colleagues,

Please note the editorial in the newest edition of Marine Pollution Bulletin, volume 62, issue 12, pages 2581-2583 (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X11004917) titled, "Are we loving 'em to death?". 

Whether you agree with author or not, I personally think such long-term historical views are necessary to understand many coral declines. Without such detailed histories of both natural and/or anthropogenic impacts, I find it difficult to put our typically small-scale, short-term field experiments in the context of the often larger and longer trends.

Or maybe, as a geologist, I'm just a believer of the quote attributed to Karl Marx, "the past is the key to the present",  which is a manipulation of James Hutton's and Charles Lyell's uniformitarian theory from the 1800s.

Curt

ciao.....
_______________________
Curt Storlazzi, Ph.D.
U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
400 Natural Bridges Drive
Santa Cruz, CA  95060
(831) 427-4721 phone
(831) 427-4748 fax

Staff web page:
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/staff/cstorlazzi/