[Coral-List] extinction threat to marine megafauna and functional diversity

[Douglas Fenner]

Functional diversity of marine megafauna in the Anthropocene

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaay7650?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2020-04-17&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3290184


open-access

They "introduce a new metric [functionally unique, specialized and
endangered (FUSE)] that identifies threatened species of particular
importance for functional diversity"

"Among the megafaunal groups, sharks will incur a disproportionate loss of
functional richness."

"Despite their immense ecological and societal value, marine megafauna are
currently threatened by human exploitation, habitat loss, pollution, and
ocean warming, which together have triggered population declines and local
extinctions of many species over just the past century."

"Under the IUCN AT scenario, 62% of all shark species are predicted to go
extinct (Fig. 3A
<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaay7650?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2020-04-17&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3290184#F3>),
which would approach levels of a mass extinction."

"Likewise, functional extinction of the bumphead parrotfish (*Bolbometopon
muricatum*) on Indo-Pacific coral reefs has compromised a key process in
the region [i.e., reef bioerosion and sediment transport; (*40*
<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaay7650?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2020-04-17&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3290184#ref-40>
)]"

"The dugong, green sea turtle, and giant clam are the three most
functionally unique (Fig. 5A
<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaay7650?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2020-04-17&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3290184#F5>
)"

"The green sea turtle, Julien’s golden carp, dugong, sea otter, and giant
clam have the five highest FUSE scores (Fig. 5C
<https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaay7650?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2020-04-17&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3290184#F5>
)"

"Because high-scoring EDGE or FUSE species are, by definition, threatened
with extinction, many have depleted populations, which may limit their
current ecological impacts."

Cheers,  Doug

You can view the IUCN Red List status for global extinction threat for all
species that have been evaluated by just typing in the scientific or common
name of the species at https://www.iucnredlist.org/

Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

"mitigating climate change is the critical wedge to set coral reefs on a
recovery trajectory"  Duarte et al 2020 Rebuilding marine life. Nature

"Already, more people die  <http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml>from
heat-related causes in the U.S. than from all other extreme weather events."


https://www.npr.org/2018/07/09/624643780/phoenix-tries-to-reverse-its-silent-storm-of-heat-deaths


Even 50-year old climate models correctly predicted global warmng
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

"Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
Science