[Coral-List] he GBR is in trouble, but not dead

[Dennis Hubbard]

Sander's email brings up a number if interesting questions. My simple
geologist's understanding of coral reproduction highlights the trade-offs
between high success rates of asexual reproduction versus the increasing
genetic diversity of "risky sexual behavior" (brooding and especially
broadcasting). In this perhaps simplistic view, identifying "useful"
strategies (out-planting corals that tend toward asexual reproduction) or
characteristics (temperature and/or pH resistance), and then using these
perceived "advantages" to design corals "better adapted" to present-day
harmful conditions, are we setting up future generations for massive and
widespread failure if our perceptions of "good" and "bad" prove less than
perfect?

Dennis

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 8:22 AM, Sander Scheffers <
Sander.Scheffers at scu.edu.au> wrote:

> Not all is bad,
>
> We have been able to spawn many corals yesterday and growth rates of our
> corals are averaging 1cm extension/wk for Acros.
>
> All of this is done in Cairns for sustainable aquaculture.
>
> Maybe with increased growth and more frequent spawning we can actually
> adapt certain corals to climate change scenarios.
>
> We can fast grow and multiple spawn GBR corals in a land based facility.
>
> Should we adapt corals to higher temps and lower pH, (because maybe we
> can) and get grants to put them out to the reef?
>
> Is it desirable or ethical?
>
> If you have ideas, input or general directions on this, please let us know
>
>
> Dr. Sander Scheffers
>
> Senior Lecturer (Hoogleraar), School of Environment, Science &
> Engineering, Southern Cross University
>
> Honorary Research Fellow, University of Queensland, QLD, Australia
>
> Associate Researcher, Caribbean Institute for Biodiversity (CARMABI),
> Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
>
> Military Rd, Lismore NSW 2477
> T: 02 6620 3277<tel:02%206620%203277> | E: sander.scheffers at scu.edu.au<
> mailto:sander.scheffers at scu.edu.au>
> CRICOS Provider: 01241G
>
> On 23 Mar 2017, at 22:55, Ed Blume <eblume2702 at gmail.com<mailto:e
> blume2702 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> "Senile reef" will morph into "zombie reef" - part dead, part alive, and
> snagging unsuspecting ships.
>
> Ed Blume
> ​Moderator, coralfree-freeforall at yahoogroups.com<mailto:coralfr
> ee-freeforall at yahoogroups.com>
>
> On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu<
> mailto:eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>>
> wrote:
>
> Ellen Prager points out a significant problem when dealing with the
> press.If you are not careful you can easily get burned by an over
> zealous environmental writer and headline writer. She rightly makes the
> point that headlines for a story are often written by specialist other
> than the writer who wrote the story. The headline is written to grab the
> attention of the reader. Remember they are also in the business of
> selling newspapers and as the reader knows, readership is suffering and
> newspapers are going out of business almost daily. Some years ago I was
> badly burned by some lurid headlines. At that time writers received
> extra cash if the Associated Press picks up their story and passes it on
> to other newspapers.Each paper that picked up my story about the effect
> of sewage nutrients on coral reefs created ever more eye-catching
> headlines. “Sewage killing reefs scientist says.” The results were
> unhappy calls from dive shop owners in the keys whose dive trips were
> being cancelled because clients did not want to dive in poop. It was
> most embarrassing.
>
> Reef researchers have for years wrestled with how to define reefs.
> Biologists and geologists see reefs differently and the average reader
> can become confused by terms like bioherm, biostrome, or even live rock.
> Remember when that big tanker grounded on “Bligh Reef” in Cook inlet
> Alaska? So-called Bligh reef is simply a submerged mountaintop. It is
> not a reef but the confusion affected people in the Florida Keys who did
> not know the difference. Even sandbars have been called reefs. In fact
> anything that a ship can ground on is often called a reef. It’s just
> maritime lore.
>
> We discuss this problem in detail in our upcoming book, “Geology of the
> Florida Keys,” coauthored by Barbara Lidz. In the book we invented a
> term for dead or almost dead reefs originally used by Lidz in her
> extensive USGS review of Florida Keys Geology,
> <http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/2007/1751> For lack of a better term we called
> reefs no longer growing “senile reefs.” We can’t predict what a news
> writer might do with that term but we could not think of anything better
> at the time. As many readers know, Florida reefs are indeed suffering
> senility. Hopefully most will recover their former vitality. It will be
> interesting to see what a news writer might do with those terms, or for
> that matter, readers of the coral-list. Lets see, “Reefs in the keys
> can’t think straight” or “they forget who they are.” 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<mailto:eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>>
> Tel 727 553-1158
> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>
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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*"