[Coral-List] Why we are failing to repair coral reefs
Eugene Shinn
eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu
Thu Oct 23 12:31:14 EDT 2014
Wow! The letters by Peter Sale and Alina Szmant touched a lot of nerves
and set peoples juices flowing. Alina was so right! I saw the proof of
that in the Florida Keys 3 months ago.I gather what started this thread
was the draft recovery plan for Acropora. I had not read the latest plan
but read an earlier version a few years ago. In the most recent version
the size of the critical habitat for Acropora in Florida has been
reduced somewhat. An earlier version was larger and included areas where
geological research indicated Acropora never grew.
The latest draft plan does however; contain an abundance of good
information. Clearly a lot of time and work went into its preparation. I
only wish there had been one or two coral reef geologists on the
project. Recovery plans in the Keys are difficult considering the
rapidly increasing population and at the same time having been a coral
reef sanctuary for more than two decades. Unfortunately corals have
continued to die in the sanctuary and have been doing so since the late
1970s. Clearly there was little management could do to prevent coral
decline and it is doubtful anything can be done to bring the corals back
to their previous state in our lifetime. Transplanting may help
somewhat. Coral death in the keys is not new. Geological research
determined two 500-year periods of staghorn absence well before there
were people in the Keys. One centered at 4,500 years ago and one center
at 3,000 years. In addition the area contains several submerged reef
flats created by elkhorn coral that had once grown up to sea level.
These submerged reef flats are now submerged under 20 ft. of water and
carbon 14 dating indicated they ceased growing approximately 5,000 years
before present. Why did they not recommence growth, as sea level rose to
its present level is anyone's guess? If elkhorn died around 5,000 years
ago and did not regrow how can we expect them to grow back now?
Furthermore, the present CO_2 level will remain in the atmosphere for at
least another 100 years if all sources were stopped today. The following
sentence in the draft recovery plan seems significant. *"Because many of
the important threats to the recovery of elkhorn and staghorn corals are
not directly manageable, the recovery strategy pursues simultaneous
actions to address critical demographic factors, the range of threat,
and knowledge gaps."* Huh? That reads like the planners already know
corals will not rebound soon. And yes, there certainly appears to be a
knowledge gap. I noticed that African dust gets short thrift in the
plan. It only discusses microbes. It did not consider the arsenic,
copper, lead 210, Beryllium 7, Phosphorous, iron, and DDT it transports?
They are all components of the dust that showers the entire Caribbean
Sea for a few months each summer. Enough said! There is nevertheless
wealth of good information in the plan. Too bad we will not see the Keys
corals spring back in our lifetime. Gene
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No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
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E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
College of Marine Science Room 221A
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158
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