[Coral-List] corals digest their zoozanthelle

Tue Aug 29 13:21:20 UTC 2023

Thanks for sharing that Hannah,

Several others have written me personal messages about their struggles and
to thank me for bringing the topic up.
You like so many others, have carried an immense weight, and yet you still
continue due to enormous dedication and perseverance.  This in my
estimation is highly praiseworthy, and I feel certain that this sort of
dedication and love for nature, the planet earth, and for coral reefs will
bear fruit in the years and decades to come.   Rather than criticism, I
think that many of your generation deserve a high level of praise, because
the planet needs you to succeed, so that your generation can help figure
out how to preserve what is left, and to begin the process of undoing the
damage. Somehow, some way climate stability will be reached.

When us old folks were in the process you are going through now, of course
research itself was different, and in some ways more difficult, however, a
good library and a few key journals at that point could be assumed to
contain a summary of all knowledge on the various topics we were studying.
Of course, there was at that time so much more left unknown that is known
today.  Now the internet allows instant access to so much more, but the
increased volume of information is overwhelming, and some key publications
are sometimes in obscure journals.  Now I am bombarded with what appear to
be rather bogus journals asking me to publish with them- and I wonder what
is happening to our field and to the world in general?

Back in the old days, the planet and coral reefs were very much alive and
gloriously beautiful, including Florida's reefs and in places like
Jamaica..... and there was so much potential.  We assumed that it would
stay that way.  Climate change, coral disease, species collapse,
invasive species and other problems had not yet impacted the system. But
now the situation has overwhelmingly become degraded and so much more
desperate, as the systems are collapsing around us, especially in the
overpopulated Caribbean.  We thought we were exempt from ecosystem collapse
over here in the South Pacific as the entire South Pacific Islands
(including Hawaii, but excluding PNG) has under 4 million people,
equivalent to Puerto Rico alone!  But with mass coral bleaching arriving in
Fiji first in 2000, we are now sliding down that slope.  I remember
the days before Peter Glynn first reported mass bleaching in 1982 for
Panama- we all thought that was so strange!

I think that we all can understand how it is possible to become discouraged
and depressed, as we all probably are dealing with this at some point!
 And just look at the horrors unfolding in Florida and the Caribbean, as  a
severe level of bleaching is predicted in the NOAA models to hit further
south in the coming two months.
https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/product/vs/data.php
Somehow we need the younger generation to not give up in spite of this, and
to remain hopeful and to persevere.

By sharing your struggles with dealing with the ocean of literature out
there illustrates that it really is timely for a good updated summary of
breakthroughs in understanding in coral reef ecology and biology, as Vassil
has also suggested below.  Perhaps with the amazing advances in AI
technology, a robot might even be able to do a synopsis covering everything
online, and to write a first draft in logical sequence for human editing?
Of course that is way over my head!  But perhaps there is someone out there
with some skills who might begin playing with that process?

Best wishes with your studies, and may your hopes and dreams come true.

Austin

On Sat, Aug 26, 2023 at 11:04 AM Vassil Zlatarski <vzlatarski at gmail.com>
wrote:

> You are again right, Austin, and let's start discussing the best way to
> overcome this situation.
>
> Isn't  a contemporary TREATISE ON CORALS a long time awaited?
>
> The "most recent" coral treatises were written by great geologists T. W.
> Vaughan,  J. W. Wells (in English), and  J. Alloteau (in French).  They
> were published in the middle of last century and offered predominantly
> paleontological knowledge of that time.  The treatise by J.-P. Chevalier
> appeared posthumously in 1987, in Traité de Zoologie, offering also
> considerable information on living corals.  Unjustly, being published in
> French it received very limited use.
>
> The project for two volumes dedicated to Scleractinia in the series T*reatise
> on Invertebrate Paleontology* started in the beginning of this century ...
>
> It would be great to succeed in realizing an efficient neontological
> project for the Scleractinia treatise.  Coral-List is a great place to
> discuss it, and what opportunity with the existing Series* Coral Reefs of
> the World? *
>
> Cheers,
>
> Vassil
>

Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
Corals for Conservation
P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
https://www.corals4conservation.org
Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change adaptation
strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
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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On Tue, Aug 29, 2023 at 11:20 PM Hannah Mazurek via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> As one of the young/newer researchers and individuals on this list this
> exchange has been very disheartening to read. I am new to the large and
> growing field of coral work and research. My undergraduate degree really
> only covered the basics of coral ecology, reef structure, and importance as
> I was at the time getting a bachelors in biology from a university
> surrounded by freshwater. Only within maybe the last two years have I even
> been close to the world of coral research and only the past year has
> involved me working directly in this realm. If in that year all I did was
> read current and past research there is no way I could have even scratched
> the surface of the literature, and I did do a lot of reading to build
> myself up from a base of zero technical knowledge regarding corals or my
> work with histology. However, that wasn't the only thing I did. I was
> completing my masters degree and internship, running fecundity
> calculations, spending long lab hours. When I wasn't in the lab I would be
> doing statistics or reading literature, including yours, to increase my
> understanding and knowledge. And of I wasn't doing either of those things I
> was working a second job because that is what I needed to do. I want to
> learn, I want to read, and I want to remain within this research world but
> it is saddening to see this attitude.
> Austin, thank you for your words of encouragement.
> Hannah MazurekMPS Rosenstiel schoolCoral Histology Technician, Nova
> Southeastern University
>
>
>  It is a shame that so many people who have an interest in coral reefs> >
> haven't either had the opportunity to take a higher level coral reef> >
> ecology and physiology course, or in lieu of this, taken the time to> >
> actually read the scientific literature. I was of the impression that>
> when> > Coral-List was started by Jim Hendee it was oriented to coral reef>
> > scientists communicating with each other about substantive coral reef> >
> topics. It was open to all which is a good way for those with little> >
> background to learn from scientists with more experience. Over the> years,
> I> > find that this scenario has changed and it is now more a forum for> >
> afficionados, but not necessarily ones with any background in the science>
> > of corals and coral reefs. I have shelves of books about all kinds of> >
> geological, ecological and biological aspects of corals that I use to>
> brush> > up on topics, and there have been excellent overview books over
> the> decades> > for those who take the time to read them. e.g. Ecosystems
> of the World> Vol> > 25 Coral Reefs (1990). Then there is
> https://scholar.google.com for more> > specific literature searches.> >>
> > I am sorry, but I will not apologize for being shocked that in 2023>
> people> > on this list would be so uninformed about coral biology to not
> know what> is> > basically general knowledge that corals digest some of
> their> zooxanthellae.> > As Rob pointed out, the first paper on this was by
> Boschma back in 1925.> He> > also did cool experiments showing how he could
> infect aposymbiotic corals> > with zooxanthellae by feeding them bits of
> zooxanthellate coral tissue> > mixed up with crab meat. He did a lot of his
> research with the cold water> > coral Astrangia danae (now poculata). I
> used to spend hours and hours> > reading the literature to catch up with
> what had been learned over the> > decades, even centuries, before I came
> along. Apparently that doesn't> > happen anymore: everyone is too busy
> reinventing the wheel. I was at the> > Bremen ISRS and did come away with
> the impression that oh so many young> and> > intelligent researchers are
> underprepared for tackling major research> > topics because of lack of
> knowledge with which to reason with.> >> >> >
> *************************************************************************>
> > Dr. Alina M. Szmant, CEO> > CISME Instruments LLC> > 210 Braxlo Lane,> >
> Wilmington NC 28409 USA> > AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement
> Awardee> > cell: 910-200-3913> > EMAIL: alina at cisme-instruments.com
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