[Coral-List] Reassessing Coral Reef Scientists

Wed Apr 8 15:55:20 EDT 2015

Greg:

There is a small-scale example of that for which you wish, from Worthing, Barbados.

Early this century, the tail end of a hurricane blew out a sandbar at Worthing, at a location locally known as Sandy Beach. This sandbar had impeded  water circulation through the lagoon.

Subsequently, the beach eroded, water circulation increased, water quality improved, corals began to recruit to the area, fish and invertebrates increased. So here is a natural experiment verifying what we all know already: if you clean up the water, the corals will come back.

Unfortunately, to date there is only an abstract on this: ASLO Newfoundland 2007 (writing the full paper is on my bucket list). Equally unfortunately, looking at my presentation at that meeting: I said, "water quality is now diminishing, and it is unlikely that recovery will continue." It is likely that the water quality on Barbados in general is insufficient for healthy reef growth.

Mike
On Apr 8, 2015, at 1:23 PM, Greg Challenger <GChallenger at polarisappliedsciences.com> wrote:

> Below is a link to the paper.  I don't believe there is any longer any doubt that media outlets have agendas on all sides.  
> 
> The researchers found both decreases and increases in Porites growth with no widespread pattern.  They did find contradictory evidence of increasing growth in higher latitudes.  I didn't get into the power or significance.  It is not shocking to learn that ranges can change as a result of physical forcing, even if contradictory.  The study involves one size class of a single species (Porites) and doesn't speak to diversity as far as can be discerned from the abstract.   As always, there are likely winners and losers when it comes to change.  It doesn't surprise me that massive Porites lobata may be doing well because we find it in the most polluted of industrial harbors doing quite well throughout the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea.  There was an in situ test (accident) that I cannot mention that removed oxygen from a certain harbor for a number of days and many members of this species survived while some others did not.  
> 
> One of the better Elkhorn Stands I have seen in recent years in the Caribbean was recently removed from the entrance of Kingston Harbor to make way for Post Panamex Vessels in some of the dirtier water I care to swim in, while some of the most recently devastated elkhorn I have seen was 100 miles offshore in the Silver Banks, D.R., both within the past few years.    I'm not sure we've got our fingers on the pulse of this thing, which makes it more challenging to convey a sense of urgency to the public.  I usually ask for examples of positive ecological outcomes from unintended consequences of man and then I might worry less.  I'm still waiting for some of those examples.
> ____________________________
> 
> 
> Growth of Western Australian Corals in the Anthropocene, Science 3 February 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6068 pp. 593-596. DOI: 10.1126/science.1214570
> 
> Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-02-coral-growth-western-australia-warmer.html#jCp
> -
> 
> 
> Abstract
> 
> 
> Anthropogenic increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to warmer sea surface temperatures and altered ocean chemistry. Experimental evidence suggests that coral calcification decreases as aragonite saturation drops but increases as temperatures rise toward thresholds optimal for coral growth. In situ studies have documented alarming recent declines in calcification rates on several tropical coral reef ecosystems. We show there is no widespread pattern of consistent decline in calcification rates of massive Porites during the 20th century on reefs spanning an 11° latitudinal range in the southeast Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Increasing calcification rates on the high-latitude reefs contrast with the downward trajectory reported for corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and provide additional evidence that recent changes in coral calcification are responses to temperature rather than ocean acidification.
> 
> 
> 
> ----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Tim
> Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2015 7:49 AM
> To: Eugene Shinn
> Cc: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> list
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reassessing Coral Reef Scientists
> 
> .......more on "The Australian" newspaper..... 
> 
> Instead of engaging their vast resources to help finance genuine marine research, and using some of their influence to drive corporate accountability, particularly in "developing" economies, the paper specialises in selective editing of scientific papers and peddling their own business agenda.
> 
> Some of us familiar with the Maldives, take exception to News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch's disheartening comments at the newspaper's 50th anniversary last year.
> 
> He said climate change should be treated with "much scepticism".
> If the temperature rises 3 degrees in 100 years, "at the very most one of those [degrees] would be man-made," he said.
> "If the sea level rises six inches, that's a big deal in the world, the Maldives might disappear or something, but OK, we can't mitigate that, we can't stop it, we have to stop building vast houses on seashores".
> 
> Perhaps we should all give up, like drowned reefs, on reading his papers......
> 
> 
> http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/fight-climate-change-by-building-away-from-sea-rupert-murdoch-20140713-zt66s.html#ixzz37oiOo25z
> 
> 
> 
> On 8 Apr 2015, at 16:31, Osmar Luiz wrote:
> 
>> For those who were not familiar with "The Australian" newspaper points of view and its strong right-wing trend, some quotes below from The Wilkpedia...
>> 
>> 
>> According to other commentators, however, the newspaper "is generally 
>> conservative in tone and heavily oriented toward business; it has a 
>> range of columnists of varying political persuasions but mostly to the 
>> right."[9] Its former editor Paul Kelly has stated that "The 
>> Australian has established itself in the marketplace as a newspaper 
>> that strongly supports economic libertarianism".[10]
>> 
>> In September 2010, the ABC's Media Watch presenter Paul Barry, accused 
>> The Australian of waging a campaign against the Australian Greens, and 
>> the Green's federal leader Bob Brown wrote that The Australian has 
>> "stepped out of the fourth estate by seeing itself as a determinant of 
>> democracy in Australia". In response, The Australian opined that 
>> "Greens leader Bob Brown has accused The Australian of trying to wreck 
>> the alliance between the Greens and Labor. We wear Senator Brown's 
>> criticism with pride. We believe he and his Green colleagues are 
>> hypocrites; that they are bad for the nation; and that they should be 
>> destroyed at the ballot box."[12]
>> 
>> 
>> On 8 Apr 2015, at 6:46 am, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> Listers, Here is a report of work done by coral scientists in 
>>> Australia readers might want to reassess. Gene
>>> http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/study-finds-coral
>>> -reef-growth-thrives-in-warmer-waters/story-e6frg8y6-1226261278615
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> 
>>> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
>>> ------------------------------------ 
>>> -----------------------------------
>>> 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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>> 
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Michael Risk
riskmj at mcmaster.ca