[Coral-List] climate change could kill all reefs

Mon Feb 24 15:34:44 UTC 2020

Facts to consider:  Latitudinal limits of environmental suitability for reef building corals is more than just temperature. Nutrient concentrations of coastal waters increase with latitude, favoring more eutrophic community structure: more algae, more sponges that outcompete corals. Also photoperiod changes with, in general, less light during many months of the year, so this will also affect coral  growth rates and competitive outcome with faster growing benthic organisms.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Steve Mussman via Coral-List
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2020 5:19 PM
To: Dennis Hubbard <dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu>
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] climate change could kill all reefs

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-e
>> liminate-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-mode
>> ls-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-1
>> 2-06&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 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> 
> 
> --
> 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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