[Coral-List] climate change could kill all reefs

[Steve Mussman]


Hi Dennis,

Here are a few links to papers/articles that discuss the viability of moving corals to preferred habitats in order to offset warming conditions. Of course, assisted migration as a strategy for coral survival under conditions associated with rapid climate change raises lots of questions just as many current restoration efforts do.  

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-014-1145-2

https://www.nap.edu/read/25279/chapter/6

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/7/7/201/htm

https://www.newswise.com/articles/coral-immigrants-provide-hope-for-reefs-facing-climate-change

https://nsac.law.miami.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bartz-Final.pdf


I thought this recent paper was of particular interest for it provides an assessment of assisted migration vs. assisted evolution of corals on reefs under increasing stress from climate change.    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12065-0

Regards,
Steve Mussman

Sent from my iPad

>> On Feb 21, 2020, at 1:41 PM, Dennis Hubbard via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 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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> 
> 
> -- 
> 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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