[Coral-List] color in corals after bleaching

[Douglas Fenner]

Glowing coral reefs are striving to recover from bleaching, study says.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/21/world/colorful-coral-bleaching-climate-scn/index.html
<https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/21/world/colorful-coral-bleaching-climate-scn/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3tdTV6coa3ALhjPD-xfi_aKUS5aP9EB_-Avho63R01vAot9YCFmY8AZVw>

"The researchers stressed, however, that improving regional water quality
and a global reduction of greenhouse gases will contribute to the survival
and sustained presence of coral reefs in Earth's oceans."
(not just will contribute, reducing gases is critical)

"Coral branches are actually comprised of compact colonies that include
thousands of tiny animals called polyps."   (actually, they are modules of
the individual organism, which is the colony.  A common myth, Myth #1,
Fenner, 2019.

"After the algae disappears, the white limestone skeletons of the corals
are exposed, making them appear bleached." (not exposed to the water.  They
are covered with living coral tissue, which is now clear, letting you see
the skeleton.)

"If the corals can't retrieve their algae, the vulnerable corals starve and
can be struck by disease."  (it is a common myth (#5, Fenner, 2019) that
corals die because they are starving due to loss of nutrition from the
algae.  Surely can happen, but they also can die very quickly if the
temperatures are high enough, long before they would starve.)  They point
out correctly that if temperatures come down they can get their algae back
and survive.  The article doesn't point out that while some corals retain
some color during bleaching, most turn white (if anything, the public
probably thinks they all turn white and none retain color, since that's the
way most press articles are written.)

Optical feedback loop involving dinoflagellate symbiont and scleractinian
host drives colorful bleaching.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(20)30571-6.pdf
<https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(20)30571-6.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220305716%3Fshowall%3Dtrue>

Open-access

Cheers, Doug

Fenner, D. 2019.  Coral reef myths and misconceptions.  Reef Encounter 34:
30-37.

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