[Coral-List] Coral Reef Degradation

Mahmoud Sarhan mahmoud.srhan at gmail.com
Sat Jul 23 22:59:55 EDT 2016


The following paper at *Nature* has very interesting results about the
correlation between some factors and MPAs where isolation is one the
studied factors. I believe if you compare the results of these two papers,
you might get some good insights!

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7487/full/nature13022.html

Mahmoud

On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Dennis Hubbard <dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu>
wrote:

> This seems like an interesting counterpoint to Doug's earlier post on the
> the Spratleys. Are they "remote" and therefore more resilient or "under
> human influence" (devastation) and, therefore, less so. Perhaps the message
> here is that no reefs are outside the influence of humans?
>
> I remember a post on this about a year back - where the Chinese equivalent
> of the EPA argued that the Chinese projects were fully evaluated and that
> appropriate safeguards had been put in place. Might we consider what folks
> on small Indo-Pacific islands(or other remote places where most of us never
> go) think when they read the same pronouncements of our EPA, NOAA and
> similar oversight agencies making such claims?
>
> I've always felt that transplanting corals from a place where they are
> doing fine to a place where they "won't be impacted by a proposed project"
> seems like just as large a stretch. If we want to argue that, "sure, they
> aren't going to do as well, but the financial gains/necessity of this
> project outweigh the eventual loss of sensitive, transplanted organisms",
> then at least we're being honest.
>
> As a geologist, I'm always optimistic. We've had five major extinctions and
> abundance/diversity returned.... and expanded rapidly (on geologic scales,
> but....) to a point higher than before the perturbation. The diversity
> curve looks a lot like the Dow - it tanks occasionally (even without our
> help), but then rebounds and ultimately goes higher, even when adjusted for
> inflation. So, when I'm convinced that we'll have a greater impact than an
> asteroid that largely vaporized much of the ocean and destroyed more than
> 95% of the known species, I'll start worrying about "the planet".
>
> In the meantime, I'm more worried about our survival. I'm not sure yet
> whether I'm arguing for or against it, but that's a post for another day.
> In the meantime, we can always think about being "transplanted".
>
> Dennis
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 10:21 AM, Steve Mussman <sealab at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >    I often wondered about isolated, seemingly health coral reefs in
> regard
> > to
> >    their potential increased resiliency to the impacts of climate change.
> > This
> >    paper in Nature addresses that issue and I agree that local management
> > alone
> >    cannot  fully  protect coral reefs, but aren't isolated reefs or those
> >    typically found in no-take MPAs obviously "healthier"?
> >
> >    http://www.nature.com/articles/srep29778
> > _______________________________________________
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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*"
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>



-- 

Mahmoud Sarhan *MSc, MPS*

Research Associate

Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise

Cornell University

https://sites.google.com/site/mahmoudsarhanweb/


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