[Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?
Risk, Michael
riskmj at mcmaster.ca
Tue Jan 16 16:32:50 UTC 2024
Hi Steve.
Those of us privileged to view the Fungia's happily (?) roaming around
the north slope of Jamaica could also answer that question with "Hell,
no!!"
The initial premise, about differences between Caribbean and
Indo-Pacific corals, also seems to have been crafted by people unaware
of Paul Sammarco's pioneering work on this very subject.
You have hit the nail on the head-and I note, with some asperity, that
you are not a coral biologist. THEY are the ones who have dropped the
ball here, and you have had to call them out. Not a week goes by
without some new scheme to "save the reefs", in which some of our
colleagues get to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame.
Coral reef biology has, by and large, avoided dealing with root causes.
This may be a question of survival-we all have stories about
researchers who ran up against Big Something, and lost. I don't know
the reasons, and it troubles me. I mention, again, that there have
(only) been two studies of what happens to a dying reef when the WQ
improves: Hawaii, and Barbados. In both cases, the corals improved
quickly.
Whatever happened to "First, clean up the water"?
Mike
__________________________________________________________________
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
Steve Mussman via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 7:40 AM
To: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?
Caution: External email.
Hi Doug,
Can foreign corals save a dying reef?
I would suggest that the simple answer to that question is an emphatic
"NO".
One of the scientists in the Nature article is quoted as lamenting "How
far do you go? When do we just give up?" she says. "I don't know."
All this angst leads me to pose a responsive question.
When will the coral sciences stop focusing on trying to find or develop
corals that can survive in increasingly adverse conditions and finally
realize that the only real solution is to address causation?
Stop wringing your hands and focus on what we all know are the central
issues at play; water quality, over-fishing and climate change.
Such an approach might not create as many exciting opportunities to
experiment with the manipulation the natural world, but it is becoming
increasingly obvious that it is the last best chance we have to save
it.
Regards,
Steve Mussman
Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
On 1/15/24, 8:16 PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List
<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
"Scientists are considering a desperate attempt to use non-native coral
to
restore long-struggling reefs in the Caribbean that were devastated by
last
year's heatwave. It's a controversial proposal
that
comes after efforts to rescue reefs with native corals have failed.
Certain
Indo-Pacific coral species easily colonize reefs, and might be able to
survive pollution, heat extremes and diseases. But they could also
disturb
the local ecology in unpredictable ways. "It's an 11th-hour solution,"
says
coral geneticist Mikhail Matz, who presented the idea at a conference.
"And
it is now 11:45."" Nature Briefing
Radical idea sparks debate
[1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
open-access
Cheers, Doug
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
Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic
growth.
Nature 624: 519-521.
[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
[3]https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-million
s-200000257.html
World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
[4]https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
[5]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrost
ates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
"without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of
the
century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening
hot
climates" Will you be in that area???
[6]https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-probl
em-123000792.html
World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The
subsidies
MUST end.
[7]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsid
ies-must-end/
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References
1. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
3. https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
4. https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
5. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
6. https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
7. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
8. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
9. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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