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

[Austin Bowden-Kerby]

PS to my last message:

Sorry, my last statement was not so kind, as the people most impacted and
paying the highest price for sea level rise and the death of coral reefs
live in these atoll nations, and they are among the least responsible for
the problem.  They deserve better.

Human societies- all life depends on maintaining a healthy planet, but
there are few immediate consequences for those nations and corporations
most responsible for creating and maintaining such a destructive system,
which now threatens all life on the planet. The people in power and the
rich, who could actually change things continue to benefit from the status
quo.

Climate justice requires a transformation of the global economy, of global
energy production, and of tax systems etc.  And I just don't see that
happening fast enough to make any difference to coral reefs and to the
atoll nations- the leading edge.  We are accelerating towards a dark chasm,
where the train and everything on it will be destroyed.  When do we pass
the point where we can not change direction, short of a total derailment?
Maybe we are already past that point?  People on the train celebrate the
fact that the rate of increase in acceleration is now slowing- but we
continue speeding, accelerating towards our demise, the brakes have not
been applied, the foot is only a bit lighter on the gas pedal.  The fact
that our tax dollars are still subsidizing offshore oil exploration says it
all- there are no set plans to change the system- the political system
responsible for change has obviously been bought by the fossil fuel
industry.  The surreal aspect is that the ultra rich billionaires, with
their immense wealth created by this system, are so distracted with their
own diversions of space travel, as if to evacuate a dying earth that they
helped suck dry.

Austin

On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 7:39 AM Austin Bowden-Kerby <abowdenkerby at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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.
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>