[Coral-List] bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

[Douglas Fenner]

Good point.  At times I look at reef flat coral from a coastal highway at
low tide to look for bleaching.  White corals are obvious, but from the
road I can't reliably tell live coral from dead coral that is covered with
algae, both are brown.  Obviously, the Great Barrier Reef is gigantic, it
can't all be ground truthed, but spot checks are possible, and it
seems likely they will be done (but I don't know, I'm not involved).  Even
if I am in the water inches from the coral, telling bleached coral from
coral that died only a day or so earlier, is difficult.  In the shallows,
dead coral gets turf growing on it incredibly quickly, about 2-3 days later
in bright sun in shallow water, there can be oxygen bubbles (if they
haven't been knocked off by wave surge) from filamentous algae that I can't
see directly for a  few more days.  Probably the deeper you go the slower
that happens, if at all.

Cheers, Doug

On Sat, Mar 19, 2022 at 8:41 AM Alina Szmant <alina at cisme-instruments.com>
wrote:

> If the extent of bleaching is being determined mostly by aerial surveys
> looking for white reef areas with minimal ground truthing, can the
> observers distinguish between dead, algal covered reef and live coral reef
> both of which can look similar from way up high unless (they are using
> LIDAR or some such more sophisticated tool that can distinguish between the
> two)? When I look at the comparison of bleaching patterns between 2016 and
> 2020 in the figure in the link to article titled: "Great Barrier Reef found
> to be coral bleached from north to south for first time" [
> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-07/great-barrier-reef-most-widespread-coral-bleaching-on-record/12107054]
> at  the bottom of the current link, it looks like the areas that bleached
> in 2016 didn't bleach in 2020 but maybe that's because the reefs were brown
> colored from algae and not coral.
>
>
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of
> Douglas Fenner via Coral-List
> Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022 2:16 AM
> To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
>
> Another article on the Great Barrier Reef bleaching story, with additional
> info:
>
>
> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/queensland-great-barrier-reef-facing-another-bleaching-event/100917656
>
> Anybody else seeing bleaching where they are??
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
> On Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 6:26 PM Douglas Fenner <
> douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Dead coral found at Great Barrier Reef as widespread bleaching unfolds
> >
> >
> > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/18/dead-coral-found-a
> > t-great-barrier-reef-as-widespread-bleaching-event-unfolds
> > <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/18/dead-coral-found-
> > at-great-barrier-reef-as-widespread-bleaching-event-unfolds?CMP=Share_
> > AndroidApp_Other>
> >
> > --
> > Douglas Fenner
> > Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> > NOAA Fisheries Service
> > Pacific Islands Regional Office
> > Honolulu
> > and:
> > Coral Reef Consulting
> > PO Box 997390
> > Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA
> >
> > Are we wasting money on shiny objects and high tech that does not yet
> > work, instead of proven low-tech to stop global warming?
> > https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00560-2
> >
> > Over 1 million sq km more land cleared for crops
> >
> > https://www.science.org/content/article/cropland-has-gobbled-over-1-mi
> > llion-square-kilometers-earth-s-surface
> >
> > Peat bogs hold TWICE as much carbon as the world's forests!!!
> > https://www.yahoo.com/news/environmentalists-fight-protect-peat-bogs-2
> > 33902101.html
> >
> >
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