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Coral Reefs Exposed To Imminent Destruction From Climate Change
2009-07-18 07:20:00 Coral reef survival is balancing on a knife edge as the combined effects of ocean acidification and ocean warming events threaten to push reefs to the brink of extinction this century, warned a... Extensive site includes news of various topics like Marine animals,Marine biology, sharks,Whales,sea mammals,endangered species,birds,turtles,penguine,-seal,planktons,Fish,coral reef,coastal environment and more
Caribbean Coral Reefs Flattened
2009-06-23 14:13:00 Coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been comprehensively 'flattened' over the last 40 years, according to a disturbing new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA).The collapse of reef... Extensive site includes news of various topics like Marine animals,Marine biology, sharks,Whales,sea mammals,endangered species,birds,turtles,penguine,-seal,planktons,Fish,coral reef,coastal environment and more
Why Coral Reefs Around The World Are Collapsing
2009-05-29 11:28:00 An explosion of knowledge has been made in the last few years about the basic biology of corals, researchers say in a new report, helping to explain why coral reefs around the world are collapsing... Extensive site includes news of various topics like Marine animals,Marine biology, sharks,Whales,sea mammals,endangered species,birds,turtles,penguine,-seal,planktons,Fish,coral reef,coastal environment and more
One-Third of Gloal Coral Reefs Facing Extinction
2008-07-13 00:35:00 I really wonder what it is going to take to wake this world up from it’s apathy and slumber. Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of marine species, making them the most biologically diverse of marine ecosystems. Corals produce reefs in shallow tropical and sub-tropical seas and have ...
Crown-of-thorns starfish threaten coral reefs
2008-05-16 17:47:00 Crown-of-thorns starfish threaten coral reefsThis surprising header, to me, was found in today's issue of the The Nation, a Thai nation wide English language paper made in Bangkok.As a long term diver in the Gulf of Thailand, since 9 years and various other parts of Thailand, but mostly in the Gulf, I've seen plenty of Crown of Thorns and they're mean guys.Here's a not so great picture that I made not too long ago at White Rock near Koh Tao. They demolish coral reefs and are very difficult to destroy, if you cut of a piece of them, they basically live on now as two new crowns of thorns. The only way I know to destroy them is to take them out of the water, which is a completely different story, since their stingers hurt tremendously and give you long lasting scars on top of that. The article in the Nation mentions injections, which is interesting. Anyway, without further ado, here's the full length article; Crown-of-thorns starfish are threatening coral reefs in at least three ...
Coral reefs coming back from the dead
2008-04-08 15:30:00 From Boing Boing: Perceptive Travel reports that efforts to re-seed dying coral reefs are performing better than anyone dared hope. This is the best news I've had this season -- I've been convinced that the reefs would all be dead before my daughter was old enough to dive them.
Brazilian coral reefs: a handbook for the environmentally conscious tourist
2008-02-18 21:35:00 Copyright © 2007 Tony Gálvez. Read the original article at http://www.braziltravelblog.com-/2008/02/18/brazilian-coral-ree-fs/. I don’t usually like to open an entry with a photograph, but in this case the placement of the image is deliberate and has the only aim of provoking an instant reaction from the reader. What you see above is tourism on a coral ...
Coral Reefs May Be Protected By Natural Ocean Thermostat
2008-02-11 11:56:00 Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research findsी The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), finds evidence that an ocean "thermostat" appears to be helping to regulate sea-surface temperatures in a biologically diverse region of the western Pacific.The research team, led by NCAR scientist Joan Kleypas, looked at the Western Pacific Warm Pool, a region northeast of Australia where naturally warm sea-surface temperatures have risen little in recent decades. As a result, the reefs in that region appear to have suffered relatively few episodes of coral bleaching, a phenomenon that has damaged reefs in other areas where temperature increases have been more pronounced.The study* lends support to a much-debated theory that a natural ocean thermostat prevents sea-surface temperatures from e...
Environmental Groups Call for Increased Protected of Coral Reefs as World M
2008-01-26 19:18:00 Many-spotted sweet lips in Solomon Islands coral reef. Photo © Hal BeralWASHINGTON, DC â January 24, 2008 â As 17 countries and 30 organizations launch the International Year of the Reef today, three major environmental groups â World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International â call on governments, businesses, scientists, non-governmental organizations and individuals around the world to vastly increase actions to protect coral reefs. The International Year of the Reef 2008, designated by the International Coral Reef Initiative, is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and to motivate action to protect them.In 2003, the World Parks Congress urged that at least 20 to 30 percent of each marine habitat should be protected by 2012. At current levels of effort, this goal will not be achieved for coral reefs. Given the importance of these systems for ocean life and human well-being, and the special stresse...
Starfish outbreak destroying coral reefs in Asia
2008-01-16 11:57:00 OUTBREAKS of the notorious crown of thorns starfish is wreaking havoc in Asia's famous Coral Triangle, where it has destroyed large swathes of coral reefs, scientists in Indonesia and Australia said.The predator starfish feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to liquefy tissue.The researchers found large numbers of them in Halmahera, Indonesia, which lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle.During a research trip in December, they saw a stretch of reef measuring 10 km in circumference completely wiped out.'It's quite a stark sight. The crown of thorns choose to eat some species, like staghorn corals, the branching corals disappear and you are left with just a rubble pit,' Andrew Baird of the Australia Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University said by telephone.He said the outbreak was caused by poor water quality and could be an early warning of widespread reef decline.'Humans are exacerbatin...
Humans Have Caused Profound Changes In Caribbean Coral Reefs
2008-01-11 05:46:00 Coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered significant changes due to the proximal effects of a growing human population, reports a new studyी"It is well acknowledged that coral reefs are declining worldwide but the driving forces remain hotly debated," said author Camilo Mora at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. "In the Caribbean alone, these losses are endangering a large number of species, from corals to sharks, and jeopardizing over 4 billion dollars in services worth from fisheries, tourism and coastal protection," he added."The continuing degradation of coral reefs may be soon beyond repair, if threats are not identified and rapidly controlled," Mora said. "This new study moves from the traditional localized study of threats to a region-wide scale, while simultaneously analyzing contrasting socioeconomic and environmental variables," he added.The study monitored coral reefs, including corals, fishes and macroalgae, in 322 sites across 13 countries throughout the Caribbe...
GLOBAL WARMING COULD KILL WORLD?S CORAL REEFS IN 50 YEARS
2007-12-23 11:55:00 Seventeen venerable sea scientists advise which universe leaders face a competition opposite time in scheming coral reefs, as well as a coastal communities contingent upon them for a ?inevitable impact? of taking flight levels of CO dioxide in a Earth?s ambience. Their brand brand brand brand new investigate shows which levels of CO dioxide could ...
By: Global Warming
Global warming could kill coral reefs in 2050
2007-12-14 00:08:00 Rising carbon emissions might kill off the ocean’s coral reefs by 2050, scientists warn in today’s edition of the journal Science. The review article, co-authored by 17 marine scientists in seven countries, including the National Oceanic and ...
Farewell, Coral Reefs
2007-12-13 21:09:00 Think the atmosphere is getting warmer? Be glad you’re not a coral reef. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology say ocean chemistry is suffering even more...
By: Green Options
Save The Coral Reefs
2007-11-14 20:02:00 my friend passed this email to me and I thought I’d share it with you all. Sign the petition as it only takes literally a few seconds to do. ————-212;————-;————&#-8212;——— Sorry to blast a mass email like this to you guys (and to everyone to whom I owe a call or email, the reason I have ...
Why Do So Many Species Live In Tropical Forests And Coral Reefs?
2007-11-14 03:03:00 ScienceDaily: There is a new development in a major debate over a controversial hypothesis of biodiversity and species abundance. Ecologists are reporting good agreement between the species richness... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
By: Engineers Voice
Parrot fish critical to Coral Reefs sustainability Scientists Warn
2007-11-06 05:28:00 Coral reefs could be damaged beyond repair, unless we change the way we manage the marine environmentी New research by the Universities of Exeter and California Davis, published November 1, 2007 in Nature, shows how damaged Caribbean reefs will continue to decline over the next 50 years.Coral reefs conjure up images of rich, colourful ecosystems yet an increasing number of reefs are becoming unhealthy and overrun by seaweed. The research team wanted to test whether reefs that are overgrown with algae could return to good health if the original causes of the problem, such as fishing or pollution, were addressed. This could mean, for example, reducing fishing or introducing better sewage management. The study revealed that the answer is ânoâ because coral reefs can become permanently unhealthy.In the 1980s, reefs in the Caribbean were hit by the devastating impact of the near-extinction of the herbivorous urchin, Diadema antillarum, with devastating results. Along with parrotfis...
Why Do So Many Species Live In Tropical Forests And Coral Reefs?
2007-11-05 07:40:00 The latest development in a major debate over a controversial hypothesis of biodiversity and species abundance is the subject of a paper to be published in the 1 November 2007 issue of the journal Natureी The authors report good agreement between the species richness of two of the world's most vulnerable ecosystems -- tropical forests and coral reefs -- and a simple mathematical model building on the so-called "neutral theory of biodiversity." "We're helping to refine and improve this theory because it might have important implications for the effort to protect terrestrial biodiversity from climate change and urban development," says Jayanth Banavar of the Department of Physics at Penn State, a member of the research team.The Nature paper is based on a counterintuitive assumption of neutral theory: that one can largely ignore interactions between species in modeling patterns of species abundance. The authors are physicists Igor Volkov and Jayanth Banavar of Penn State University...
What are Corals and Coral Reefs?
2007-10-30 17:44:00 Appearing as solitary forms in the fossil record more than 400 million years ago, corals are extremely ancient animals that evolved into modern reef-building forms over the last 25 million years. Coral reefs are unique (e.g., the largest structures on earth of biological origin) and complex systems. Rivaling old growth forests in longevity of their ecological communities, well-developed reefs reflect thousands of years of history (Turgeon and Asch, in press).Corals and their KindCorals are anthozoans, the largest class of organisms within the phylum Cnidaria. Comprising over 6,000 known species, anthozoans also include sea fans, sea pansies and anemones. Stony corals (scleractinians) make up the largest order of anthozoans, and are the group primarily responsible for laying the foundations of, and building up, reef structures. For the most part, scleractinians are colonial organisms composed of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of individuals, called polyps.
New Research Shows Larval Fish Use Smell To Return To Coral Reefs
2007-10-26 13:29:00 Tiny larval fish living among Australia's Great Barrier Reef spend the early days of their lives swept up in ocean currents that disperse them far from their places of birthी Given such a life history, one might assume that fish populations would be genetically homogeneous within the dispersal area. Yet the diversity of reef fish species is high and individual reefs contain different fish populations. For such rich biodiversity to have evolved, some form of population isolation is required. New research from MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) Associate Scientist Gabriele Gerlach, MBL Adjunct Senior Scientist Jelle Atema, and their colleagues shows that some fish larvae can discriminate odors in ocean currents and use scent to return to the reefs where they were born. The olfactory imprinting of natal reefs sheds light on how such a wide diversity of species arose. The homing behavior of reef fishes, the researchers contend, could support population isolation and genetic divergenc...
Coral Reefs On Brink Of Disaster, Scientists Urge Action Now
2007-10-23 13:17:00 The world has a narrow window of opportunity to save coral reefs from the destruction caused by extreme climate change, according to a unanimous statement issued today by leading Australian scientistsी The call for action is the outcome of a National Forum on Coral Reef Futures, held at the Australian Academy of Sciences, in Canberra.Local action can help to re-build the resilience of reefs, and promote their recovery. It is critically important to prevent the replacement of corals by algal blooms, by reducing runoff from land and by protecting stocks of herbivorous fishes,â says Prof Hughes.âWhen corals die from pollution, disease or climate change, it affects all the other species on reefs that depend on corals. Without corals, the habitat is destroyed. Many reef fisheries are collapsing because of coral bleaching,â says Dr Morgan Pratchett, an Australian Research Fellow at James Cook University.âReefs cannot be climate-proofed except via reduced emissions of greenhouse ...
How are coral reefs threatened?
2007-10-18 15:39:00 How are coral reefs threatened?In 2001, according to the World Atlas of Coral Reefs published by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 58% of the world's coral reefs are under threat from human activities.For more information visit:http://www.unep-wcmc.org/-http://www.icran.org/http://www-.coralreef.org/portals.conserva-tion.orgSome of the major threats are:Marine pollution from commercial sea vesselsCommercial shipping illegally dumps waste materials at sea.Ballast and fuel storage tanks are emptied at sea, releasing fuel, oil and other chemicals.Anti-fouling paints leach toxic chemicals.For more information visit: http://www.imo.org/Sewage from land-based developmentsTourist developments have inappropriate water treatment and sanitation systems.Raw sewage is often dumped directly into the sea via outflow pipes that insufficiently long to prevent the sewage from being brought back to shore.Effluent release results in increased levels of nitrogen and phosp...
Coral Reefs In The News
2007-09-02 14:40:00 Fishers warned of coral reef fin fish restrictions - ABC Online 30 Aug 2007 at 5:52pm Fishers warned of coral reef fin fish restrictions ABC Online, Australia - Aug 30, 2007 Fines of up to $75000 will soon apply to those caught fishing coral reef fin fish...
By: Aquarists Online
Coral Reefs In The News
2007-08-18 21:55:00 Trying to Save the Coral Reefs - TIME 17 Aug 2007 at 3:02pm Trying to Save the Coral Reefs TIME - Aug 17, 2007 A school of fish pass over a coral reef at Hanauma Bay, Hawaii...
By: Aquarists Online
Are the Coral Reefs Dying?
2007-08-18 18:42:00 Time reports on “a canary in the global warming coal mine”: Trying to Save the Coral Reefs Near the close of the 1960s, a squadron of young scuba divers headed out into the warm waters of the South Pacific, tanks of air strapped to their backs and syringes at the ready. Their mission, one lethal injection at ...
By: Kmareka.com
Coral Reefs In The News
2007-08-12 11:20:00 Indo-Pacific coral reefs are disappearing - Science Daily (press release) 9 Aug 2007 at 4:53pm Carib Journal Indo-Pacific coral reefs are disappearing Science Daily (press release) - Aug 9, 2007 full story Coral Reef Decline - Not Just Overfishing (August 31, 2005) — Scientists widely agree that coral reefs are in declining...
By: Aquarists Online
Pacific Ocean coral reefs are dying faster than expected
2007-08-10 17:33:00 Coral reefs in much of the Pacific Ocean are dying faster than thought, with little difference between well-protected and poorly managed areas, says a study released Wednesday. Researchers from the University of North Carolina examined some 6,000 surveys of more than 2,600 coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific - stretching from the Indonesian island of Sumatra to ...
Indo-Pacific Coral Reefs Disappearing More Rapidly Than Expected
2007-08-10 12:47:00 Corals in the central and western Pacific ocean are dying faster than previously thought, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have foundी Nearly 600 square miles of reef have disappeared per year since the late 1960s, twice the rate of rainforest loss. The reefs are disappearing at a rate of one percent per year, a decline that began decades earlier than expected, the researchers discovered. Historically, coral cover, a measure of reef health, hovered around 50 percent. Today, only about 2 percent of reefs in the Indo-Pacific have coral cover close to the historical baseline"We have already lost half of the world's reef-building corals," said John Bruno, lead study author and associate professor of marine ecology and conservation in the department of marine sciences in UNC-Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences.The study provides the first regional-scale and long-term analysis of coral loss in the region, where relatively little was known about patterns o...
Coral reefs dying faster than expected
2007-08-09 11:43:00 Coral reefs in much of the Pacific Ocean are dying faster than previously thought, according to a study released Wednesday, with the decline driven by climate change, disease and coastal developmentी Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill found that coral coverage in the Indo-Pacific â an area stretching from Indonesia's Sumatra island to French Polynesia â dropped 20 percent in the past two decades.About 600 square miles of reefs have disappeared since the 1960s, the study found, and the losses were just as bad in Australia's well-protected Great Barrier Reef as they were in poorly managed marine reserves in the Philippines. "We found the loss of reef building corals was much more widespread and severe than previously thought," said John Bruno, who conducted the study along with Elizabeth Selig. "Even the best managed reefs in the Indo-Pacific suffered significant coral loss over the past 20 years."The study, which examined 6,000 surveys of more th...
Coral reefs are in danger
2007-07-14 15:53:00 The colonies of coral reeves are on the verge of disappearance because of the illness which is called a “white syndrom” by oceanologists. It is expressed in occurrence of white stains which bring ruin to corals. Sea organisms of the Big Barrier reef in Australia, archipelagoes of Caribbean sea and the area of Kirama islands in ...
By: DaTravelers.com
Herpes Virus Killing Coral Reefs
2007-06-29 00:00:00 Weird but true, herpes virus are killing coral reefs. Research shows that herpes outbreaks are common in coral reefs and are killing them. I wonder what coral reef cold sores look like. And I wonder who's infecting them. News Article
By: RetardZone
I'm moving!
2007-05-31 10:45:00 I signed a lease for a new apartment this afternoon. I'm going to move out of my place in Gualo Rai...well, right now. I'm pretty excited. The apartment is in a great location. I'll write all about it in a future blog.Yesterday I took the morning off to go to Managaha. Well, sort of. Even though I was technically off, I still took pictures of fish and coral. I shot some video, too.The fish at Managaha are amazing! There was a school of Bluefin Trevali circling around the snorkling tourists. They must have been about two feet long each.Now, we could kill those 8 fish and have one hell of a BBQ or we could charge 200 tourists $50 per day to go swimming with them. Which one do you think is better?
By: The Saipan Blog
A Second Look at our Coral Reefs
2007-05-29 09:28:00 A good point stressed out by the Taiwanese is to stop all the blaming and finger pointing with regards to the safety and upkeep of most of our environmental resources such as our coral reefs and start thinking of ways to restore them. Such was the issue since careful deliberation regarding the status of coral ...
Investigating Coral Reefs to Help Understand Past and Future Climate Change
2007-05-16 17:16:00 From ScienceDaily Headlines: Increasing Earth temperatures and rising sea levels. Both of these are effects of climate change. T...
Famous Caymans Coral Reefs Dying
2007-05-10 13:06:00 Cayman Islands -- To coral reef-driven tourism industries like those of the Cayman Islands, there could be a greater cost in ignoring climate change than fighting it. Ranked among the top 10 scuba diving destinations in the world, the reef system of the western Caribbean territory has lost 50 percent of its hard corals in the last 10 years in spite of strong environmental laws, scientists say. "We are at a very critical time in the history of coral reefs," said Carrie Manfrino, president of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute on Little Cayman island. "It is like working with a sick patient. How well we treat that patient will determine if that patient survives. We could potentially see the end of hard coral reefs in our lifetime." The Caymans tourism industry, which represents about 50 percent of the colony's gross domestic product, was kick-started in 1957 when dive industry pioneer Bob Soto opened the first scuba diving operation in the Caribbean. Fifty years later, about 2 mi...
Earthquake Causes Coral Reefs to Die
2007-04-13 17:39:00 From LiveScience.com: A 2005 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia raised an island nearly four feet out of the water, causing o...
Burning Fossil Fuels Erodes Coral Reefs
2006-12-22 15:13:01 The effect of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide were first reported, and largely ignored, 20 years ago. Today, those early findings are being vindicated as recent research shows that atmostpheric C02 is being absorbed by the ocean and is resulting in a more acidic environment that erodes corals and shellfish the way osteoporosis erodes human bone.Coral reefs support 25% percent of all marine life. Add this research into the already known effects of coral bleaching due to increased water temperatures and you have all the proof you need that the effects of climate change go far beyond what is occuring on the visible surface. |
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