[Coral-List] climate change could kill all reefs

Dennis Hubbard dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu
Thu Feb 20 20:50:56 UTC 2020


This is truly sobering information. As those on the list are well aware, I
am not a fan of coral transplanting unless it occurs in places where the
problem that has caused the dieoff do not exist (the oft-used "putting
people back in burning buildings" analogy). However, given the shrinking
number of viable alternatives, I wonder if we might might think about
moving some corals to sites further north or south (depending on the
hemisphere) where temperatures could be more conducive to survival during
heating events. A lot of thought would obviously have to be given to things
like possibly greater thermal variability at new sites, the likelihood that
non-thermal stresses that might exist at particular sites and the extent to
which other factors (e.g., sediment input, wave climate, substrate type
that is different from the present site) might be less than ideal. Has
anyone given any thoughts to scenarios where distance might serve as a
proxy for temperature? In years past, I might have been the first one to
chime in with, "are you kidding?", but....

Dennis

On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 3:27 PM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Climate change could kill all of the world's coral reefs by 2100,
> scientists warn
>
> https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB10bzFz?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
>
> Warming, acidic oceans may nearly eliminate coral reef habitats by 2100
>
>
> https://news.agu.org/press-release/warming-acidic-oceans-may-nearly-eliminate-coral-reef-habitats-by-2100/
>
>
> Few places would be left where coral restoration would be viable.
>
> Open-access.
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
> --
> 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
>
> "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
> _______________________________________________
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> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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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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