[Coral-List] New Paper: Resilient corals in the Phoenix Islands

[Austin Bowden-Kerby]

Thanks for that David,

I agree with you, as far as on geological timescales.  But for Kiribati, on
the leading edge of the global coral reef collapse, unfortunately the
oceanic reefs are doing as bad or worse than the lagoons. The ocean facing
reefs are adapted to cooler waters so they kick the bucket as badly as the
lagoonal corals when mass bleaching temperatures arrive and where they can
linger for over half the year.  For the Gilbert chain, bleaching
temperatures dominated for 30 months out of 60 since 2014, until La Nina
conditions finally arrived last year, giving them a one or two year break.

The thermal stress is superimposed on both ocean and lagoon habitats, and
corals tend to adapt to near the upper thresholds for their symbionts.  So
all corals, of both lagoon and ocean reefs, are equally stressed and in
danger of being wiped out.  I conjecture that the most resilient
coral populations will be found at the transition between lagoon and
oceanic conditions- the reef passes.  If this hypothesis is correct, then
those reef pass areas are where our conservation efforts might best be
focused.

The lessons of Kiribati have taught us a lesson for Fiji and Tuvalu and
Samoa, where it is still not too late.  Our strategy in recent years is to
locate and move corals of the same species as those on the ocean facing
reefs- from the warm lagoons, nearshore reef flats, and hot pockets, out to
the cooler outer lagoon and pass areas where we establish them in gene bank
nurseries. The goal is to create patches of these resistant corals on the
ocean reefs themselves, where they stand a much better chance into the
future, and where they can then begin to spread their resilience.

Mother Earth has a fever, but she has a strategy of Her own to protect the
coral reefs- sea level rise.  Imagine the positive impact that adding one
or two meters of water will have on the shallow coral reefs globally.
Vastly more area for corals to grow, increased upward scope for growth, and
a cooling of the lagoons and shallows. Of course the coastal areas and
human populations may not fare so well.  But seriously, we
deserve every millimeter!

Regards to all,

Austin
.
Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
Corals for Conservation
P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
https://www.corals4conservation.org
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>


Teitei Livelihoods Centre
Km 20 Sigatoka Valley Road, Fiji Islands
(679) 938-6437
http:/www.
<http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji>
teiteifiji.org
http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji
https://www.facebook.com/teiteifarmstay
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/happy-chickens-for-food-security-and-environment-1/





On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 6:29 AM David Blakeway via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> In assessing these reefs I think it's worth considering where they're at in
> terms of their natural life cycle. Kiribati, for example, looks pretty
> terminal to me. You could imagine that 1000 years ago it might have
> resembled Tabueran (3.86, -159.32) and 1000 years from now it might look
> like Washington Island (4.68, -160.38). That process (losing all lagoon
> corals) is completely natural. And probably wouldn't be a gradual
> incremental process (on our timescale); more likely the lagoon coral
> community would undergo massive fluctuations in the terminal stage, while
> heading toward long-term senescence. I agree that preserving Kiribati
> corals is critical insurance. My point is just that--for reefs in
> general--we shouldn't expect good stable coral cover and diversity in
> late-stage reefs approaching sea level.
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>