[Coral-List] Mixed Messages

[Steve Mussman]

Hi Tomas,

I would like to point out one particularly demoralizing aspect of this discussion that I’m not sure is being fully realized or appreciated. The “synergistic” approach, which I believe in substance has compelling legitimacy,  is unfortunately playing into the hands of climate change deniers and policy makers who are more than happy to embrace any scientific research which can be spun in their direction. I just read an article earlier today which was referring to the rejection of anthropogenic climate change in the policies of the current U.S. administration which is claiming responsible stewardship of clean water, air and oceans in the face of the undeniable degradation of coral reefs in Florida. Their rationale for omitting references to climate change was both revealing and enlightening and I believe is in need of emphasis. 

While senior administration officials admitted that the degradation of coral reefs “is a problem we’re serious about” they pointed to language in the International Coral Reef Initiative’s 1995 call to action which claimed that “reasons for the decline in reef health are varied, complex, and often difficult to accurately determine”.  So, although your point is well taken and reasonable within the realm of scientific debate, we should all be mindful of the broader context in which these discussions can and do apply.  

All this leaves me to believe that although there are undeniably synergistic factors at play,  perhaps it is (past) time for the coral science community to go ahead and list threats in order by priority even though, as Clive Wilkinson just pointed out, the “top ten” rankings may not be exactly the same everywhere around the world. I feel confident that the results of any such a delineation would drive home the point that the elephant in the room can no longer be ignored.

Regards,
Steve

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 7, 2019, at 1:20 PM, Tomas via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 
> Well said Nicole. One would have thought that more than 30 years after
> nutrients were demonstrated to be a serious threat to the health of many
> coral reefs around the world, especially the classic blue-water reefs,
> folks responsible for coastal development would have done a better job
> factoring this into their planning. Sadly the message has not been
> received by some as this recent paper demonstrates:
> 
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335022567_Effects_of_tourism-derived_sewage_on_coral_reefs_Isotopic_assessments_identify_effective_bioindicators
> 
> To those that suggest that 'eutrophication' or 'nutrification' or
> 'increased nutrient subsidy' were in the past being promoted as the main
> causes of coral reef degradation let me state that to my recollection not
> one coral reef researcher that has worked on, or is working on, the
> effects of nutrients on coral reefs has ever said that nutrient subsidies
> alone were responsible to the degradation of coral reefs around the world.
> I really hope that we all recognize that to address the synergistic
> effects of anthropogenic stressors on coral reefs we need to develop and
> Sapply management policies and practices to manage human activities and
> development in a synergistic way.
> 
> Tomas
> 
>> Why do we all need to remain in our boxes and stick to our one sided
>> reasoning line (perhaps due to a paper we might have written)?  Cant we
>> all
>> agree that multiple stressors are important?  That maybe it really is a
>> combination of drivers?  Alina, I am truly mystified that you really
>> believe Floridas reef declines don't have a eutrophication factor.
>> Really?
>> wow I think I have missed something and would love to see the data behind
>> nutrient loading, eutrophication and reef declines.  Isotopes might also
>> shine a light (thanks Michael for turning me on to that as we are pursuing
>> that more now!).
>> 
>> We work in one of those remote, low human impact, clear water systems (see
>> our paper Atoll wide Atoll-scale patterns in coral reef community
>> structure: Human signatures on Ulithi Atoll, Micronesia Crane et al
>> 2017). There
>> are pretty clear patterns associated with nutrients although we didn't
>> sample for those specifically.  But the 'worst' reef is in the lowest
>> water
>> movement, closest to human nutrient loading, lowest oxygen, and highest
>> temp.  Which of those is driving it?  there is likely a dominant one, but
>> no doubt multiple drivers.
>> 
>> Anyway, denying ANY driver of decline is probably not advancing our
>> collective field at all, and surely leaves room for skeptics to jump at
>> justifications for poor behavior or lack of action.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> Nicole
>> 
>> Nicole L. Crane
>> Faculty, Cabrillo College
>> Natural and Applied Sciences
>> www.cabrillo.edu/~ncrane
> 
> 
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