[Coral-List] Divers and Corals
Ben Titus
bmt0004 at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 10 10:31:42 EDT 2015
Hi all,
Really enjoying the discussion on diver presence and reef ecology and I echo Curtis' sentiments. Just to add my two cents, we recently published what is essentially a case study on the impact of SCUBA diver presence on reef fish behavior on heavily dived versus undived reefs in the Bay Islands, Honduras.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119645
We used cleaning interactions at anemone-shrimp cleaning stations to look for signatures of habituation to diver presence, and what was especially striking was the almost complete lack of SCUBA diver observed cleaning interactions at our undived reef site. This impact of diver presence even extended to situations where divers were present on the reef, but not directly in front of the cleaning station of interest (>10m). Additionally, while we did observe some signatures of habituation at our heavily dived reef site, remote camera deployment was still able to recover greater cleaning rates than direct diver observation.
A few years back Alert Diver magazine from DAN published an article on "The Observer Effect" http://www.alertdiver.com/?articleNo=1610 which does a nice job of highlighting some of the issues of diver presence. One of the most interesting aspects (at least to me) is how we often assume that what we are observing underwater is "natural," and we fail to account for the fact that our presence can have a major impact on the distribution of some animals on the reef. Especially those that are highly mobile. I think this is something to keep in mind not only when we discuss the impacts of recreational diving of reef/underwater habitats, but also as scientists trying to ask nuanced questions about community ecology, behavior, etc... My opinion is that picking a suitable reef site for the question you're asking is much more important than most people realize (or would like to admit), and understanding the historical use of a reef should be incorporated into the methodologies we ultimately use.
Best,
Ben Titus
PhD StudentThe Ohio State UniversityDept. Evol., Ecol., and Organismal Biologytitus.42 at osu.eduhttp://bentitus3.wix.com/bentitus#
On Friday, April 10, 2015 8:39 AM, "coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa..gov" <coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: New (old) way to murder a coral reef (Magnus Johnson)
2. Re: Reassessing Coral Reef Scientists (Dennis Hubbard)
3. reassessing coral reefs (Eugene Shinn)
4. New paper on whole transcriptome expression changes in corals
during bleaching. (Jorge H. Pinz?n C.)
5. Re: Divers and corals (Curtis Kruer)
6. Fast extension rates don?t always equate to a healthy coral
(Scott Wooldridge)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2015 16:29:48 +0000
From: "Magnus Johnson" <m.johnson at hull.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] New (old) way to murder a coral reef
To: Coral List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
<8A3EA8C56DC9804680CDA8CD57F3FFD5FB352DD6 at PAT-DG2.scar.hull.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
People in glass houses . . . .
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Diego+Garcia+Military+Base/@-7.3914155,72.4053261,61220m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x2492724c04a8a721:0xbce8b282922bb016
(UK & US: disputed territory, damage to reefs and wildlife, unlicensed fishing, riding roughshod over international conventions)
________________________________________
________________________________________
From: Phil Dustan [dustanp at cofc.edu]
Sent: 09 April 2015 10:44
To: Coral List
Subject: [Coral-List] New way to murder a coral reef
Greetings Listers,
While we ponder the ways of the diving industry the Chinese have taken
reef destruction to another dimension in the South China Sea:
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1761516/satellite-photos-show-china-reclaiming-land-around-disputed-mischief-reef
--
Phillip Dustan
Department of Biology
College of Charleston
Charleston SC 20401
Charleston SC
843 953 8086 (voice)
843-224-3321 (m)
"When we try to pick out anything by itself
we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords
that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe. "
* John Muir 1869*
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2015 08:45:56 -0400
From: Dennis Hubbard <dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reassessing Coral Reef Scientists
To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Cc: Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>,
"<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> list"
<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
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Hi Doug, Regarding your comments on SL rise, this conflates coral growth
and reef building. The work of Peter Davies, David Hopley and others
clearly showed that these reef flats broadened after reef caught up with
slowed (actually stable or falling) sea level after 8 CalBP. The reefs
built at their fastest rates after initial start-up, but it is unclear
whether this was a response of faster sea-level rise or just the background
accretion rate. In the Caribbean, it is clear that reefs in 20+ m of water
build just as fast as those in 2-5 m of water. Our preliminary analyses of
other data suggest that this is mimicked in other oceans. To me, the fact
that the depth-related patterns of coral growth is not mirrored by reef
building suggests that coral growth is a very poor proxy for what will
happen as accelerating sea level opens up accommodation space atop reef
flats. Very careful and thoughtful studies have shown that even 20 cm of
freeboard atop the reef crest can more than double the wave energy normally
filtered by the reef. Also, increased storm intensity will dramatically
increase export from the ref proper (either across the reef flat in the GBS
and the Indo-Pacific or down-slope in the Caribbean. Reef building is a
complex process and coral growth, while providing the building blocks, is a
very small part of the total budget. Existing data on reef building
suggests that the present rate of sea-level rise is faster than the
Holocene accretion rates of more than half of the reefs where coring has
occurred (and this was with plenty of available accommodation space). Also,
we must remember that this was at a time before *Homo stupidus* was
providing the myriad stresses that are common today. To me, it is not
comforting to realize that so many reefs are already lagginf behind is the
most optimistic picture available.
Best,
Dennis
On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
> wrote:
> I didn't notice the date of the article, Feb. 2012, initially, it is in
> such small, light print. This article is not recent news. Thanks to
> everybody for pointing out the article it was based on, and the informative
> comments.
>
> My take on the Cooper 2012 Science article is that decreases in the
> rate of calcification had been reported in a previous paper based on GBR
> (Great Barrier Reef) data, and there had been speculation that it could
> indicate that acidification had begun to slow coral growth. But the Cooper
> paper found that on the west coast of Australia, calcification had
> increased along with increasing temperatures, and increased most in the
> south where temperatures were lower and the increase greater. So they
> conclude that the dominant effect at this point is the effect of warming
> temperatures, because increasing temperatures strongly increase the rate of
> calcification (and linear extension, the main contributor to
> calcification). They explain the GBR result as likely being due to the GBR
> having reached higher temperatures at which growth may begin to slow, or
> due to decreased growth there due to bleaching.
>
> Articles have previously documented that massive *Porites* corals growth
> rate increases with temperature. Such as in:
>
> Lough, J.M. 2008. Coral calcification from skeletal records revisited.
> Marine Ecology Progress Series 373: 257-264. Figure 2b shows skeletal
> extension rate increasing with increasing temperature. Figure 2a shows
> skeletal density decreasing with increasing temperature, and Figure 2c
> shows calcification increasing with temperature. The range of annual
> average sea temperature was 23-29.5 C.
>
> http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v373/p257-264/ open access
>
> People do tend to assume that all effects of climate change and global
> warming will be negative. Not true, I would argue. For instance, melting
> Arctic sea ice will make ship navigation there possible, with likely
> economic benefits. It may also make drilling for oil in the Arctic ocean
> easier, with all of the possible effects on economics and the environment...
> Also, people often say that rising sea levels will hurt reefs. Indeed,
> where there are soft terrestrial sediments, increased wave action due to
> less friction with the substrate in the deeper water on reef flats will
> mobilize sediment and negatively impact corals. But where there is no such
> sediment, like on atolls, more water depth allows more coral growth on reef
> flats. There are a lot of atolls, and reef flats around the world have
> about 6 times the area of reef slopes, so that's not a minor consideration,
> though sea level rise of 3 mm a year is way slower than most corals can
> grow, so corals will likely hit the surface and be limited anyhow. Plus,
> once mass coral bleaching kills them, they won't be growing any more. So a
> temporary positive effect. References listed at the end of this message.
>
> Another paper adds some perspective:
>
> Wooldridge, S. A. 2014. Assessing coral health and resilience in a
> warming ocean: why looks can be deceptive. BioEssays 36(11): 1041-1049.
>
>
> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201400074/abstract (not
> open access, click on "author information" to get the author's email
> address)
>
>
> He writes in the abstract, "In this paper I challenge the notion that a
> healthy and resilient coral is (in all cases) a fast-growing coral, and by
> inference, that a reef characterised by a fast trajectory toward high coral
> cover is necessarily a healthy and resilient reef." and "Moreover, it
> explains the somewhat
>
> paradoxical scenario, whereby at the ecological instant before the
> reef-building capacity of the symbiosis is lost, a reef can look visually
> at its best and be accreting CaCO3 at its maximum."
>
>
>
> In general, I believe it is the case with most poikilothermic or ectodermic
> animals, that as temperature rises, metabolism increases, gradually and
> reversibly, up to a point. Above that point, it decreases, precipitously
> and irreversibly. Corals are no different. The two processes are quite
> different, the precipitous drop at high temperatures is due to the
> denaturing of proteins primarily, I would think, and it leads to death. In
> other words, for any animal, indeed any organism, if the temperatures gets
> too high, they get cooked and die.
>
>
> So increasing temperatures seem great, but beyond a certain point are
> lethal. The problem for corals is that in many places, they live close to
> their upper thermal limit in the summer, and global temperatures are
> increasing. In places where they live well below their thermal maximum,
> temperature increases may not be a threat, and increase growth rates, which
> seems good. Mind you, much of the threat doesn't come directly from
> gradually increasing temperatures, it comes from hot water events, such as
> the 1998 El Nino event that killed about 16% of the world's corals. Such
> events can push even corals in cooler water over their limits, since their
> limits tend to be lower, usually just a couple degrees above the local mean
> summer high temperature. Janice Lough tells me that the corals on the west
> coast of Australia bleached in 2011, 1-2 years after they collected their
> coral cores. The high temperature of El Nino events and the like, are on
> top of the gradually warming baseline, so as the baseline goes up, the peak
> event temperatures go up as well (though they vary greatly depending on the
> strength of the El Nino) and thus likely the damage. If I remember, the
> maps of where coral bleaching on the GBR occurred in the major events of
> 1998 and 2002, didn't show that they only bleached at the northern end,
> they bleached at the southern end too (where average water temperatures are
> lower). In fact, they bleached more at the southern end than the northern
> end, judging from Fig. 2 in the following article:
>
>
> Berkelmans, R., De?ath, G., Kininmonth, S. & Skirving,W. J. 2004 A
> comparison of the 1998 and 2002 coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier
> Reef: spatial correlation, patterns and predictions. Coral Reefs 23, 74?83.
>
>
> The Cooper paper says in the next to last paragraph that "The
> influence of ocean acidification is expected to occur first at higher
> latitudes that inherently have lower seawater saturation states with
> respect to
>
> carbonate minerals due to their increased solubility at lower water
> temperatures (10, 30)."
>
>
> The following paper predicts that while bleaching will degrade corals in
> the future mainly at low latitudes, acidification will degrade them at high
> latitudes, and so there is no latitude that offers a refuge from climate
> change:
>
>
> van Hooidonk R, Maynard JA, Manzello D, Planes S (2014) Opposite
> latitudinal gradients in projected ocean acidification and bleaching
> impacts on coral reefs. Global Change Biology, 20, 103?112.
>
>
> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12394/abstract Not open
> access, but click on author information for the author's email address.
>
>
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
>
>
> Fenner, D. 2012. Reef flat growth: comment on ?Rising sea level may cause
> decline of fringing coral reefs.? EOS 93 (23): 218.
>
>
> Brown, B. E., R. P. Dunne, N. Phongsuwan, and P. J. Somerfield (2011),
> Increased sea level promotes coral cover on shallow reef flats in the
> Andaman Sea, eastern Indian Ocean, Coral Reefs, 30, 867?878.
>
>
> Scop?litis, J., S. Andr?fou?t, S. Phinn, T. Done, and P. Chabanet (2011),
> Coral colonization of a shallow reef flat in response to rising sea level:
> Quantification from 35 years of remote sensing data at Heron Island,
> Australia, Coral Reefs, 30, 951?965.
>
>
> Vecsei, A. 2004. A new estimate of global reefal carbonate production
> including the fore-reefs. Global and Planetary Change 43:1-18.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:46 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
> > ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
> >
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 6:23 AM, 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
> > >> ----------------------------------
> > >> -----------------------------------
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Contractor with Ocean Associates, Inc.
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799 USA
>
> phone 1 684 622-7084
>
> "belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."
>
> Politics, science, and public attitudes: What we're learning, and why it
> matters. Science Insider, open access.
>
>
> http://news.sciencemag.org/social-sciences/2015/02/politics-science-and-public-attitudes-what-we-re-learning-and-why-it-matters?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&utm_src=email
>
> Homeopathy ineffective, study confirms.
>
>
> http://news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2015/03/homeopathy-ineffective-study-confirms
>
> website: http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
>
> blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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--
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346
* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2015 10:28:43 -0400
From: Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
Subject: [Coral-List] reassessing coral reefs
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <55268C9B.8090700 at mail.usf.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Guess I stirred up a lot of muddy water with the report on coral growth
in the Australian newspaper. I thank Dough Fenner for pointing out that
the report is on a 2012 paper published in Science.I missed that however
I do remember reading the original paper. I think the take home message
is that in areas where the water is usually quite cool it is logical for
coral growth to increase when the water warms. Think ?just right? as in
the Goldilocks story.And yes Porities is a fairly tough coral.While with
USGS we cored large Porities heads that survived near Atomic bomb tests
at Eniwetok atoll. Based on analysis of annual growth rings we found
that several smaller heads began growing on the edge of a bomb crater
within a year of the event.
The photo of the diver coring the head coral appalled Dennis Hubbard as
it did me. The photo showed all the divers equipment as well as the
diver resting on the coral head. In the past we cored over a hundred
head corals and never touched them except with the drill bit.
It was interesting that one reader took the ?kill the messenger?
approach taking the newspaper to task because it is a Rupert Murdock
product. Is that the way we do science? Read the article in Science and
evaluate that.
Earlier comments about the hypocrisy of coral scientists using air
travel to study distant coral reefs, reminded me of a recent gathering
of climate activists in Switzerland. They came from far and wide in
approximately 700 different private jets. Yes it was reported on Fox
news. What other network would have reported it?Hypocrisy is all around
us. It shows up when we attack the messenger instead of the message. Gene
--
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
---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2015 09:48:36 -0500
From: "Jorge H. Pinz?n C." <jorgecoral at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] New paper on whole transcriptome expression
changes in corals during bleaching.
To: Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <BLU436-SMTP55F8B9A9BC72FBFB395CC7C9FB0 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear All,
I would like to drive your attention to our recent manuscript on gene expression changes in corals (Orbicella faveolata) during the natural bleaching event in 2010 in the Caribbean.
The study is focus on immune responses, but there is also information about other biological processes that should be helpful in future research endeavors in the topic of coral bleaching.
Here is the link:
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/4/140214 <http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/4/140214>
It is Open Access - Enjoy!!
Sincerely,
Jorge Pinzon
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2015 09:53:51 -0600
From: "Curtis Kruer" <kruer at 3rivers.net>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Divers and corals
To: "'Andrew Ross'" <ross.andrew at mac.com>, "'Alevizon, William
Stephen'" <alevizonws at cofc.edu>, <david at medio.fsnet.co.uk>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <016801d072dd$5fae4620$1f0ad260$@net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
List - It's amazing to me that missing from this discussion is the issue of
disturbance of fish and wildlife (mammals, birds, etc) by power boats and
human presence on popular coral reefs. I can confirm what Gene Shinn said
about little Looe Key with 50-100 boats at a time. Does anyone really think
that the mere presence of all those boats and divers doesn't in itself have
a profound impact on animals that would otherwise make use of the area, not
to mention affect their activity. How far can a diver hear a large power
boat? Plenty far of course, now imagine 50-100 power boats coming and going
in a relatively small area. The literature is full of information on the
negative effects of noise and human activity on fish and wildlife. Why do
we think reefs are any different? And, it's the coral reef ecosystem we're
concerned about right, remember, all the components and pieces? Not just the
% of hard coral cover.
The presence of power boats all over Keys flats and shallows have helped
lead to the demise of once famous Keys flats fishing. And if disturbance of
bonefish and permit and the like is not an issue, and they're not disturbed
by noisy, high speed boat traffic, then all those fishing writers writing
about the wary and easily spooked and hard to catch flats fish have been
fooling us all these years.
For certain it's a difficult issue to address in any meaningful fashion but
the issue of disturbance on popular reefs and flats needs to at least be
recognized and discussed, and put on the list of real concerns, not ignored..
Curtis Kruer
-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Andrew Ross
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 12:26 PM
To: Alevizon, William Stephen; david at medio.fsnet.co.uk
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Divers and corals
William, David and The List,
I have seen the same general watersports/SCUBA-apathy and have my share of
war and/or horror stories.
Maybe more than my share...
This week, however, we start setting up a SCUBA shop for (not just within) a
small local fish sanctuary here on in Jamaica.
http://www.oracabessafishsanctuary.org/index.html
<http://www.oracabessafishsanctuary.org/index.html>
Now that they are achieving high-compliance and good community support,
employment and general empowerment, major improvements in fish and
reductions in algae cover, a new staghorn coral thicket and a good deal
more, they're interested in getting the sanctuary to start to cover its own
bills in order to step away from the donor treadmill and its inevitable
mission creep.
Thus the cart is before the horse in terms of this Coral-List conversation,
be that good or bad. The ostensible goal of this shop is to generate a
bankable, reasonably dependable trickle-income for sanctuary management
while keeping the management's tanks filled and gear greased. The
Sanctuary's goals (fishery enhancement) will still provide the governing
framework for the shop while the shop will let them be less reliant on the
good graces and/or favours of the very (hotel) stakeholders that they are
supposed to be managing.
We expect to employ a few fishers and also to value the sanctuary within the
larger community by putting high-income diver-guests into the surrounding
rental villas, restaurants and markets from time to time.
A tall order, certainly.
Any existing examples, comments and suggestions are more than welcome either
on or off-list.
We may also be looking for a like-minded concessionaire, if anybody is
interested.
Best regards,
Andrew Ross, Ph.D.
Seascape Caribbean
www.seascapecarib.com <http://www.seascapecarib.com/>
> On Apr 8, 2015, at 10:13 AM, Alevizon, William Stephen
<alevizonws at cofc.edu> wrote:
>
> Regarding Diver Education and Coral Damage:
>
> Yes, as Medio (1997) and others have shown, proper dive briefings and
diver education may - at least in some situations - have the capacity to
lessen the per/diver damage done to reefs.
>
> However, as Barker and Roberts (2004) pointed out, although "diver impacts
can be reduced by education. high levels of damaged coral may be unavoidable
if large numbers of divers use a reef." In fact, their study (in the
Caribbean) concluded that "Briefing alone had no effect on diver contact
rates, or on the probability of a diver breaking living substrate."
>
>
> The need for reasonable limits to the number of divers allowed on a reef
site has been pointed out by a number of studies", to wit:
>
>
> "We show here that recreational divers cause substantial direct (skeletal
fracture, tissue abrasion) and indirect (deposition of sediment) damage to
live stony corals in the Florida Keys ..Our study also reveals that the
percent cover of live stony corals and the proportion of undamaged corals
both decrease significantly with estimated rates of recreational diving on
reefs in Key Largo. (Krieger and Chadwick 2013)
>
>
> "If the tourism industry is to sustain itself in the Egyptian Red Sea,
every management effort must be made to minimise the sources of stress on
the coral reefs we can effectively control. This includes: not overfishing,
minimising anchor, diver and blast fishing damage; not exceeding dive site
carrying capacities, (etc.)." (Jameson et al. 2007)
>
> "Above a certain threshold of use, estimated at between 4000-6000 dives
per year, coral cover loss and coral colony damage levels may increase
rapidly (Riegl and Velimirov, 1991; Dixon et al., 1993; Prior et al., 1995;
Hawkins and Roberts, 1997)." (Source: Barker and Roberts 2004)
>
> "Zones (At Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt) subject to intensive SCUBA diving
showed a significantly higher number of broken and damaged corals and
significantly lower coral cover. .. The results show a high negative impact
of current SCUBA diving intensities on coral communities and coral
condition. Reducing the number of dives per year, (etc.) are essential to
conserve the ecological and the aesthetic qualities of these dive sites." -
Hasler and Ott (2008)
>
> In short, the consensus of most researchers who have studied this issue
appears to be that diver education alone is not sufficient to prevent
substantial reef damage if the number of divers remains too high.
>
> I think folks have been loathe to address this issue because of the
obvious economic impacts it may cause to already established dive tour
operators, but there is little doubt it is a major problem in some areas of
the best developed reefs.
>
> So, I ask again, is there any interest among other coral-listers to
provide some tools that might bring greater public attention - and/or MPA
management response - to this issue?
>
> Seems to me that other efforts to restore highly damaged reefs may prove
fruitless if 30,000 plus recreational dives per year occur at the
restoration site. And the extent of recreational scuba diving in some of
the best remaining examples of coral reefs in the Caribbean and Red Sea
appears to be on an ever-increasing trajectory.
>
>
> William S. Alevizon
> Research Associate
> Dept. of Biology
> College of Charleston
> 58 Coming St.
> Charleston, S.C. 29424
> USA
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 09:25:04 +1000
From: Scott Wooldridge <S.Wooldridge at aims.gov.au>
Subject: [Coral-List] Fast extension rates don?t always equate to a
healthy coral
To: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
<3E46A1D9DB6DCD4F98163793F1B0479178A69EA9D1 at tsv-ExchBESvr01.aims.gov.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Just following on from Doug?s comments. The paper can be downloaded from my ResearchGate page.
Wooldridge SA (2014) Assessing coral health and resilience in a warming ocean: why looks can be deceptive. BioEssays 36(11):1041-1049
Abstract: In this paper I challenge the notion that a healthy and resilient coral is (in all cases) a fast-growing coral, and by inference, that a reef characterised by a fast trajectory toward high coral cover is necessarily a healthy and resilient reef. Instead, I explain how emerging evidence links fast skeletal extension rates with elevated coral-algae (symbiotic) respiration rates, most-often mediated by nutrient-enlarged symbiont populations and/or rising sea temperatures. Elevated respiration rates can act to reduce the autotrophic capacity (photosynthesis:respiration ratio) of the symbiosis. This restricts the capacity of the coral host to build and maintain sufficient energy reserves (e.g. lipids) needed to sustain essential homeostatic functions, including sexual reproduction and biophysical stress resistance. Moreover, it explains the somewhat paradoxical scenario, whereby at the ecological instant before the reef-building capacity of the symbiosis is lost, a reef
can look visually at its best and be accreting CaCO3 at its maximum.
I also have a soon-to-be published manuscript which highlights that bleaching-sensitive reef areas on the Great Barrier Reef during the 1998 and 2002 mass bleaching events include old massive Porites colonies that have multi-decade sclerochronological histories characterised by regionally-enhanced skeletal extension rates (and reduced skeletal densities) outside of the bleaching events.
Cheers,
scott
--
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