[Coral-List] Bleaching refuges

Pedro M Alcolado gmalcolado at gmail.com
Wed Mar 30 15:32:07 EDT 2016


Dear coral lister,
Cleaning polluted rivers close to reefs that were degraded for that
reason, could provide some chance of recovery of these reefs even in
the ongoing unfavourable climatic conditions and bleaching events.
Clean rivers fertilize reef waters naturaly, and in some extend
consequently more productive water could act as a sun-screen during
water water warming (preventing in some extend excessive light  harm
and thus coral bleaching), and simultaneously provide richer better
quality plankton for feeding corals (favouring coral resistence and
recovery through heterotrophy).

Pedro M. Alcolado
Instituto de Oceanología
Havana, Cuba

On 3/29/16, Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul,
>     Well said, thank you very much for this idea.  I think this idea is a
> good one, and well worth trying.  We don't seem to have any other options
> at this point, and it could well work.     Cheers, Doug
>
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 12:40 PM, Paul Muir <paul.muir at qm.qld.gov.au>
> wrote:
>
>> I proposed this idea many years ago (~2005!) on coral list and am
>> wondering if anyone ever tried anything like this? Given the current
>> bleaching on the northern GBR and likelihood of other areas being hit
>> soon
>> perhaps it's worth someone doing a trial? Desperate times..
>>
>> Severe coral bleaching events can cause very high levels of coral
>> morality
>> and the recovery of reefs following such events can be very slow. For
>> example, recovery of corals in the Seychelles Islands following the
>> severe
>> 1998 bleaching event was extremely slow and regional extinction of some
>> species a possibility. Localised extinctions and slow recovery could be
>> mitigated if small areas of reef were protected during bleaching events:
>> corals have extremely high  fecundity and only a few healthy individuals
>> of
>> each species would needed to accelerate recovery. Field observations and
>> studies of the physiology of coral bleaching suggest that shading corals
>> during a high temperature event can reduce mortality rates. Small areas
>> of
>> reef (to 10,000m2 area) could be provided with moderate shading by the
>> use
>> of floating covers similar to those used in farm dams and industrial
>> ponds.
>> Such covers are light, float upon the water surface and could be rapidly
>> deployed from a small boat during a high-temperature event. The covers
>> would be held in place with small anchors and inflatable seams would
>> provide a flexible, semi-rigid structure that would resist small waves
>> and
>> swells at a protected site. High temperature bleaching events typically
>> occur during very flat, calm conditions over just a few weeks which makes
>> deploying floating covers such as this feasible. Real-time monitoring of
>> the development of bleaching conditions and small-scale engineering
>> solutions may become increasingly important for the preservation of
>> thermally sensitive species at local scales.
>>
>> I can supply some ideas for a test-scale floating cover on request.
>>
>>
>> Dr. Paul Muir
>> Research Officer/ Collection Manager Corals, Biodiversity &
>> Geosciences Program
>>
>>
>> Museum of Tropical Queensland | Queensland Museum
>> 70 - 102 Flinders Street | Townsville | Queensland 4810 | Australia
>> t +61 7 47 260 642 | f +61 7 47 212 093 | m +61 407 117 998 |
>> www.qm.qld.gov.au
>>
>> Affiliate, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland
>> ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Staghorn Corals Website
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Consultant, corals, coral reefs, coral identification
> "have regulator, will travel"
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> phone 1 684 622-7084
>
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>
> "Belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."- Jim Beever..
>   "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts."-
> Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
>
> Record shattering February warmth bakes Alaska, Arctic 18oF
>
> http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/13/3759569/record-february-warmth-alaska-arctic/
>
> Sea level is now rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years.
> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/sea-levels-are-rising-their-fastest-rate-2000-years?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=292592
> http://mashable.com/2016/02/22/manmade-sea-level-rise-flooding/#fscPLGedCiqz
>
> Miami is flooding: "The Siege of Miami, as temperatures rise, so will sea
> levels."  Sea level rising an inch a year there.
> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
>
> website:  http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
>
> blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
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