[Coral-List] Transformation of Caribbean reefs
Risk, Michael
riskmj at mcmaster.ca
Tue Feb 23 18:13:09 UTC 2021
Thanks, Joe. Depressing indeed.
I had a quick look at the Roatan one. Some spectacular (if you like
that sort of thing) colonies of Cliona delitrix, a fecal bioindicator:
3:39 and 8:34 show some good examples. The yellow tubes of
Siphonodictyon (now known as Aka) are also everywhere: e;g. 9:30 and
11:42.
Seems less of these denizens on the seamount.
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From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
Pawlik, Joseph via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2021 7:24 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>;
PORIFERA at JISCMAIL.AC.UK <PORIFERA at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
Subject: [Coral-List] Transformation of Caribbean reefs
Colleagues,
Because of the pandemic, many of us are not doing field-work,
traveling, or diving. For those of us who work on reefs in the
Caribbean, many have missed the accelerating loss of the remaining
stony corals, particularly at fore-reef depths >10 m.
This link provides video surveys from January 2021 of reefs on the NW
and SW sides of the island of Roatan, Honduras, and a seamount between
the island and mainland.
[1]https://youtu.be/507OpUfd3Mc
You can see the final stages of coral loss due to recent bleaching
events and disease. Seaweeds, sponges, and octocorals now dominate the
benthos. Near-shore and seamount reefs have been similarly affected,
suggesting that local run-off and point-sources of pollution are not
the primary causes of coral loss.
A video from a year ago documents the final stages of coral loss
on the fore-reefs of the Turks and Caicos. The pace of coral loss
appeared more rapid there, but the outcome was the same.
[2]https://youtu.be/11ywGm33wnM
The purpose of these posts is not to depress the heck out of everyone
(however likely), but to raise awareness of the reality of Caribbean
reefs at the present time. It is one thing to look at a graph of
declining percentage cover of stony corals (with the most recent data
from several years ago), and another to see the current state of the
reefs.
Regards,
Joe
**************************************************************
Joseph R. Pawlik
Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology
Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
UNCW Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC 28409
Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
Website: [3]http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
PDFs: [4]http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
Video Channel: [5]https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
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References
1. https://youtu.be/507OpUfd3Mc
2. https://youtu.be/11ywGm33wnM
3. http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
4. http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
5. https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
6. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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