[Coral-List] Bioturbulence Proven as a Factor in Ocean Mixing and it's Implications

Mon May 30 01:44:03 UTC 2022

      What Austin describes has long been called "Natural History."  Many
early scientists did lots of it.  I think offhand I'd say that Darwin and
Wallace were two of the more famous biologists in that tradition.  Much of
the anatomy of most species is essentially natural history description down
to the light microscope level.  Most if not nearly all, descriptions of
multicellular species is observational (I see this species has two spines,
that species four, those sorts of things).  A good part of coral reef
ecology is, or at least partly is, natural history.  Experiments in nature
and the lab and more powerful techniques in the lab allow more rigorous
testing of hypotheses.  But observation of nature produces loads of
interesting and important information to test.  Actually, I believe it to
be the case that ecology is not alone, much of geology and astronomy were
long largely observational and a large part of them still is.
       Chuck Birkeland talked about the difference between natural history
and big, technical ecology in a paper listed below.  His fundamental point
was that we need both.  Without natural history, it may be easy to make
mistakes about the interpretation of lab results.  Without experiments, we
won't know whether our ideas from natural history about what causes what
are correct or not.  Plus, as Austin is pointing out, natural history is a
very rich source of hypotheses for further testing.  Much of the effort and
attention these days is on the ever more technological part of ecology with
fancy statistics, and on DNA sequencing.  But for field ecology,
monitoring, and management, being able to recognize species and what you
are observing in the water will continue to be important.  There is a
journal called "Natural History."  Many journals publish species
descriptions.  But I think Austin has a good idea, it would be good to have
a journal that specialized in Coral Reef Natural History.  Maybe Atoll
Research Bulletin is close to that, though it includes terrestrial studies
as well.  He is surely right that there are many scientists with loads of
observations of reefs which would be good to document and make accessible
to others including future generations instead of being lost.
         More specifically to Austin's post, there are papers documenting
fish fertilizing coral growth with their feces.  On atolls, corals actually
have less than ideal access to nutrients, as shown by the study that found
that nutrients from bird colonies on atolls increased life on the adjacent
reef.  References below.
      Cheers, Doug

  Birkeland, C. 2009. Important roles of natural history in ecology. *Galaxea,
Japanese*

*           Coral Reef Society* 11: 59–66.  (it refers to a paper by Dayton
that talks about this as well)

Liberman T, Genin A, Loya Y  (1995) Effects on growth and reproduction of
the coral *Stylophora pistillata* by the mutualistic damselfish *Dascyllus
marginatus*.  Marine Biology 121: 741-746.

Meyer JL, Schultz ET, Helfman GS  (1983)  Fish schools: an asset to
corals.  Science 220: 1047-1049.

 Meyer JL, Schultz ET  (1985)  Migrating haemulid fishes as a source of
nutrients and organic matter on coral reefs.  Limnology and Oceanography
30: 146-156.

 Meyer JL, Schultz ET  (1985)  Tissue condition and growth rate of corals
associated with schooling fish.  Limnology and Oceanography 30: 157-166.

Graham, N. A. J., Wilson, S. K., Carr, P., Hoey, A. S., Jennings, S., and
MacNeil, N. A. 2018. Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and
functioning in the absence of invasive rats. *Nature* 559: 250-252.

On Sun, May 29, 2022 at 12:27 AM Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Hi Mel and all,
>
> I was just using simple logical deduction: since the study proves that fish
> cause significant ocean mixing, if those same fish are then overfished to
> extinction or reduced by half, it only follows that the fish-induced mixing
> caused by that species will stop completely, or be reduced by half
> accordingly.  If these fish cause bioturbulence, then imagine how much
> better tuna, mackerel, sardines, whales, etc. might be, but especially
> those species that cross boundary layers.
>
> Thanks for sharing the 1860 quote from La Mer "the combined motion of the
> little fish tails"...  of course!  Brilliant!
> Sadly, the day of descriptive science and assumptions based on logic and
> keen observation are presently out of fashion, but I think that they need
> to come back, because hypothesis testing and other forms of science that
> are in vogue are limited, as they often exclude close visual observations
> and detailed descriptions, which is of course due to the fact that few
> scientists live on the reef and go out daily or weekly year after year.
> Science seems to be moving far too slowly for a system in grave danger of
> collapsing.
>
> Being "on the spectrum", much of what I know is based on reading other
> works as well as my own close observation of the systems in both the
> Pacific and Caribbean over decades.  Much of what I operate on has never
> been published, due to my personal circumstances and limitations, and not
> being attached to any academic research institution, having to fight the
> wolf at the door on an ongoing basis year after year.  I have developed a
> long list of observations and preliminary conclusions that you won't find
> in any journal, but as they are based on simple logic, and based on
> multiple observations, I am teaching these speculations and observations to
> indigenous marine graduates and others in our course "Coral restoration for
> climate change adaptation", making it clear that they are my own
> assumptions and might in time be proven or disguarded.  We welcome
> researchers and graduate students to attend one of these workshops, and to
> come to our field sites as interns or researchers, and to work with us, as
> we need verification of many observations and working hypotheses, and time
> is far too short to not share "intellectual property" more openly before it
> is published. Saving the coral reefs should certainly be enough of a
> reward- and just imagine how much unpublished knowledge goes to the grave
> every year?!
>
> One example of what I am talking about, and directly related to the topic
> of this email thread, is that I have long assumed that fish are vital to
> branching corals for oxygenation, nutrient uptake, waste removal, and
> sediment removal, not only because it is completely logical, but because we
> see evidence that it is happening.  It is clear from observations of
> tabulate Acropora corals versus digitate or staghorn Acropora, that Chromis
> and Dascyllus, both planktivorous fish, make a difference to survival in
> challenging lower flow habitats in the IndoPacific:  We observe that
> tabulate corals do NOT provide habitat for planktivorous fishes, and so
> they generally do poorly in these silty and low-flow situations, while
> the digitate and staghorn growth forms do just fine in such low flow
> conditions, especially if they are able to attract Chromis and Dascyllus.
> On a less definite and more speculative aside, I hypothesize that the
> corals might be competing for these little fish, which has in turn resulted
> in diverse and  flamboyant coloration and possibly even fluorescence of
> various coral colonies within a species, done in an attempt to attract the
> little fishes!?  Not only do the corals benefit from the presence of the
> fish, but the fish in turn require a clearly defined home site, hovering
> over the colonies as they feed on zooplankton, and having the absolute
> requirement to not stray far from their home colony.  A strong visual
> signal coming from the home colony would help them stay close to the safety
> of its branches.
>
> The sad thing is that sharing like this is not often done- everyone holds
> back on important findings and hypotheses that might help others and thus
> collectively help save coral reefs. What seems to be missing from science
> is an easy place to publish unverified speculations and observations like
> these, and without complications, so that the information can be accessed
> and used by researchers and graduate students who then go on to verify or
> disprove the ideas as they develop research topics of relevance to the
> present crisis.  Idea-people and those with years of field observations at
> the end of career would then have a greater impact.  These speculation or
> observations can then be referenced and the first to post them would get at
> least some of the credit!  This might be a way to encourage a vast and more
> open sharing of information? A rush to post new observations, ideas, and
> findings.
>
> In the present era, as the very survival of humanity is in question due to
> strains being made on the earth, just about every institution needs to be
> reinvented or transformed if we are going to avoid collapse of the planet,
> and academia is not exempt from this reinvention.
>
> Thanks and regards,
>
> 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/
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 29, 2022 at 11:22 AM Melbourne Briscoe <mel at briscoe.com>
> wrote:
>
> > " The article, which proves bioturbulence for the first time is
> > likely relevant to overfishing of the oceans in general."
> > I don't understand how you conclude anything about overfishing from the
> > article you link, which does not mention overfishing. Can you explain?
> >
> > I used to have an 1860's French textbook on "La Mer" that not only had
> > drawings of the Kraken dragging down a schooner, but described the things
> > that mixed the ocean, i.e. the sun, the moon, the rotation of the earth,
> > and "the combined motion of all the little fish tails." Walter Munk's
> > joking a century later was not a new idea.
> >
> > - Mel
> >
> > On Fri, May 27, 2022 at 5:06 PM Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <
> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> https://eos.org/articles/tiny-creatures-may-play-a-difficult-to-detect-role-in-ocean-mixing?utm_source=EosBuzz&mkt_tok=OTg3LUlHVC01NzIAAAGEo_OQQIW0rqNZgyI-5z4UkTpsHp10Uek4dHjh4bgXqzxC0SqtKmfPEA6BYterhbNRI5v4ND60Wn_3l4twA-r0yDS-9ZstGMrMhYqIHcA
> >>
> >> The article, which proves bioturbulence for the first time is likely
> >> relevant to overfishing of the oceans in general.  Also I am wondering
> >> about corals and hiw highly branched species can get properly oxygenated
> >> and fed in calm waters, and as branching corals in general do poorly
> when
> >> fish numbers are too low.  I believe that the fish are the circulatory
> >> system of the corals, dissipating wastes and bringing in oxygenated
> waters
> >> to the corals at microscale, as well as "dusting off" settling silt and
> >> even sand from corals.  Has anyone studied the topic of bioturbulence in
> >> corals?
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> 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/
> >> >
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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> >>
> >
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