[Coral-List] amazing recovery of corals in the Southern Line Islands after bleaching mortality

Fri Nov 4 14:45:08 UTC 2022

Thanks, Austin, you are again right:

"Excessive wealth, not poverty, is driving the collapse."

Cheers,

Vassil

Vassil Zlatarski
D.Sc. (Biology), Ph.D. (Geology)

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 8:13 AM Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Yes, Alina,
>
> Fish and the entire myriad of invertebrate species that associate with
> the original climax community have been neglected.
> Using coral cover alone to measure coral reef health is like using
> vegetation cover to measure forest health, where grass is equal to
> shrubs and trees!   As long as it is not barren rock or rubble, it
> passes as recovered!
>
> Tabulate Montipora just does not provide the same habitat- yes, the
> plates do have big spaces between them, but there are no fine branch
> spaces.  If digitate and branching Acropora and Pocillopora die out,
> even branching porites is better for the planktivorous and juvenile
> fish than are tabulate coral species. This is observational, we are
> now looking more into it.  Of course the coral dwelling crabs and
> shrimp are quite species specific as well.
>
> Enjoy the fall weather!   I miss the beauty and peace of the Sound,
> which was our family home for some nine generations.  My Great
> Grandfather was Elijah Hewlett, of Hewlett's Creek.  Dr. Anne McCrary
> UNCW's invertebrate zoologist, was my Aunt. Landfall on Wrightsville
> Sound, which sold for over a billion dollars a few decades back, was
> the old Bowden Plantation, which my second great grandfather "gave
> away" before he died in 1898, related to the Wilmington
> "Insurrection", and the fact that his grandmother was African.
>
> And here we are on the verge of planetary collapse and massive sea
> level rise, threatening to erase the coral reefs and the sounds and
> shores we grew up on within the next few generations, and all due to
> human excess, materialism, and a vastly unjust global economic order.
> Excessive wealth, not poverty, is driving the collapse, and much of
> that wealth was stolen via massive land theft, genocide, slavery, and
> colonialism.
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> 22 minute summary of climate change adaptation strategies
> https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk
>
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 1:21 AM Alina Szmant <alina at cisme-instruments.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Austin:
> >
> > From your post I glean that a missing component of the 'recovery '
> studies you cited is an assessment of the fish communities that depend on
> specific coral species.
> >
> > Alina
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr. Alina M. Szmant,  CEO
> > CISME Instruments LLC
> >
> >
> >
> > -------- Original message --------
> > From: Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> >
> > Date: 11/2/22 8:53 AM (GMT-05:00)
> > To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
> > Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] amazing recovery of corals in the Southern
> Line Islands after bleaching mortality
> >
> > Thanks Doug,
> >
> > Yes, this sounds encouraging- on the surface, and the photos are
> > beautiful!   However if you look more deeply, it is a lot less hopeful.
> > What this represents is yet another case of near total phase shift in the
> > coral population, and the local extinction of a whole list of species.
> The
> > actual reality is this: due mass bleaching, the coral population of the
> > Southern Line Islands has gone from a diverse population dominated by
> > Pocillopora and Acropora, to one dominated by a single species of
> > Montipora.
> >
> > A similar phase shift has happened in Tarawa, in the Gilbert chain, due
> to
> > bleaching, with the end state being a single species: Porites rus (Cannon
> > et al, 2021).  In Kiritimati Atoll, the mass bleaching resulted in the
> > local extinction of many Acropora species and a big reduction in
> > Pocillopora, leaving behind only remnants of massive Porites and massive
> > Pavona, (Bowden-Kerby et al, 2021).  In Moorea, the phase shift has gone
> > from Acropora dominated to Pocillopora dominated (Edmunds, 2018; Carlot
> et
> > al, 2020), related to bleaching and COTS predation.  This phase shift has
> > been well documented for the Red sea as well (Riegl et al, 2013), with a
> > shift away from Acropora towards Pocillopora and Porites, attributed to a
> > combination of mass bleaching and COTS predation.
> >
> > These phase shifts transform the habitat characteristics of the reef,
> away
> > from what the original species.  The resulting reefs provide poor habitat
> > for juvenile fish and plankton-feeding fish like Chromis, which require
> > branching coral species.  These phase shifts represent weedy and
> > long-lasting coral species, which can dominate the settlement surfaces
> and
> > prevent larval based recovery of the reef back to its original coral
> > population. Few of these authors seem to understand this, and so they
> > celebrate and use the word "recovery" in their titles.  However, these
> > phase shifts represent degraded alternate steady-state conditions.
> > Unfortunately GCRMN will support these authors, as it only looks at coral
> > cover, not genera, and so it will not pick up or highlight these phase
> > shifts and species extinctions either.
> >
> > I have two recommendations related to this information:
> > 1. GCRMN needs to be updated to include coral genera!  Seriously- how can
> > GCRMN be missing so much of the plot?
> > 2. The authors of these sorts of "recovery" studies need to present phase
> > shifts with less glee and celebration. A more detached and honest view
> will
> > present the tragedy that has happened.  Yes, the alternative state
> > sometimes is rather glorious and beautiful, appearing to be an
> improvement
> > over barren rock, but the fact is that these phase shifts represent local
> > extinction events for coral species essential to ecosystem function,
> > fisheries, and coral reef geology.  And these phase shifts might also
> > prevent the return to the original populations, cementing in the
> extinction
> > event.
> >
> > We can not allow increasing coral cover to trick us into thinking that an
> > actual recovery has happened.
> > If we do, we risk being seduced by the enemy and missing the evil plot
> that
> > climate change is weaving, tricking us into inaction!
> >
> > I think that there is enough evidence to come to the conclusion that
> coral
> > reefs are dying out as a series of phase shifts.  Only this recognition
> > will help us refrain from celebrating the shift, and to stop labeling it
> > recovery.
> > Only by understanding these basic processes occurring on coral reefs
> under
> > increasing stress, can we then begin saving the reefs.
> >
> > What happens when the next mass bleaching event or perhaps predators or
> > disease kills off much of the Montipora of the Southern Line Islands?
> Will
> > this unstick the alternative steady state and allow recovery? Not unless
> > there is a source of coral larvae from the original, now missing coral
> > species.  How does a high coral cover single-species dominated reef get
> > restored to its original highly diverse state?  On Kiritimati, after the
> > mass coral die-off in 2015-16, and while coral cover was still under 5%
> for
> > the two remaining massive species, we turned our focus to finding the few
> > remnant survivors of formerly dominant Acropora and Pocillopora coral
> > species, and growing them within a recovery nursery.  The focus was on
> > restoring sexual process to the corals, by collecting the widely spaced
> and
> > ecologically extinct survivors, growing them, and getting them back
> > together.  While several formerly abundant Acropora coral species could
> not
> > be found, we have succeeded in restoring reproduction to patches of seven
> > Acropora and two Pocillopora species.
> >
> > A 22 minute presentation on our 'Reefs of Hope' strategies is here
> > https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk    And to the list: we welcome self-funded
> > research partners and graduate students in our sites.
> >
> > Vinaka, and kind regards to all,
> >
> > Austin
> >
> > Cannon SE, Aram E, Beiateuea T, Kiareti A, Peter M, Donner SD (2021)
> Coral
> > reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and
> > recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors. PLoS ONE 16(8):
> > e0255304. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255304
> >
> > Edmunds, P.J.  Implications of high rates of sexual recruitment in
> driving
> > rapid reef recovery in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. 2018.  Nature:
> Scientific
> > Reports.  8:16615 doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34686-z
> >
> >
> > Carlot J., Rove`re A., Casella E., Harris D., Grellet-Mun C., Chancerelle
> > Y., Dormy E., Hedouin L., Parravicini V.  2020. Community composition
> > predicts photogrammetry-based structural complexity on coral reefs. Coral
> > Reefs. doi: 10.1007/s00338-020-01916-8
> >
> >
> > Riegl B., Berumen M., Bruckner A. 2013.  Coral population trajectories,
> > increased disturbance and management intervention: a sensitivity
> analysis.
> > Ecology and Evolution 3(4): 1050–1064
> >
> > doi: 10.1002/ece3.519
> >
> >
> > Bowden-Kerby, A., Romero, L., and Kirata T. 2021. Chapter 17: Line
> Islands
> > Case Study. In: Active Coral Restoration: Techniques for a changing
> planet,
> > David Vaughn, Editor. 610pp.
> >
> >
> >
> > Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> > Corals for Conservation
> > P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> >
> >
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> > <
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 2, 2022 at 6:01 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > > Once devastated, these Pacific reefs have seen an amazing rebirth
> > >
> > >
> > >
> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/once-devastated-these-pacific-reefs-have-seen-an-amazing-rebirth-feature
> > >
> > > Cheers, Doug
> > >
> > > --
> > > 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
> > >
> > > Switching to renewable energy could save trillions-up to $12 TRILLION
> by
> > > 2050.
> > > https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62892013
> > >
> > > 1 in 6 deaths worldwide can be attributed to pollution, new review
> shows
> > >
> > >
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/1-in-6-deaths-worldwide-can-be-attributed-to-pollution-new-review-shows/ar-AAXozQh
> > >
> > > UN: World on fast track to disaster, but we can avert it
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBVD8r0aHQ
> > > _______________________________________________
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