EnviroLink Forum

If you need cheering up skip to another thread; we are trying to limit the damage to 2 degrees and apparently that's not going to save coral reefs.

http://rabett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/th ... arkly.html

It appears corals made it through a number of ELEs and PETM, so they should make it through AETM.(but humans won't)

History of Reefs
According to the United States Geological Survey, fossil records reveal corals as old as 500 million years. Cyanobacteria are the oldest known reef-building organisms and have been in existence for approximately 3.5 billion years. During the Mesozoic period between 65 and 245 million years ago, hard corals were prolific reef builders, but by the end of the era something occurred that caused numerous coral reefs to vanish. Other species of corals similar to those still in existence today dominated theTertiary era between 2 and 65 million years ago, according to Sea World.org.


Read more: Facts of Coral Reefs | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5477122_coral ... z27yxKpDhR

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

For once Johnny we agree.

The fact that coral has been around for a hugly long time and seen lots of often very rapid climate change seems lost on some people.

This has been in the news today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19800253

It's clear that climate change is not the only problem but it has not recovered from bleaching events caused by extreme heat. In the future these will become more common.

If the only problem was climate change I would agree that it would be unlikely that coral would become extinct, but coral is under considerable stress form a range of human activities which leads me to think that they will become extinct.

Here is a quick list of problems off the top of my head roughly in order of impact

1 Pollution particularly excess run off of fertilizers and chemicals from farming especially sugar cane.

2 Water turbidity from land clearing, coral needs clear water as they rely on photosynthesis.

3 Extreme weather events such as high intensity cyclones which are expected to become more frequent due to climate change.

4 Shipping damage both mechanical and oil pollution

5 proliferation of species such as the crown of thorns either as introduced species or due to excess nutrients.

6 Changing PH levels due to absorption of CO2 making the formation of coral impossible or much more difficult.

8 sea temperatures becoming to high in some areas possibly balanced in the long term by currently colder areas becoming available.

9 sea level rise coral usually can not survive below 150 ft depth.

10 rate of change too rapid to allow coral to evolve fast enough to adapt.

11 UV probably damages or stresses coral at low tide.

12 Over fishing leading to an unbalanced ecology.

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Pollution is not the solution

Coral is obviously having problems.

The fixation on CO2 may well be causing us to not consider the real culprit.

I would put something like the pesticides or other chemicals which are flooding the world with often highly unusual inputs. Artifical estrogen from the contraceptive pill????

We should take the large scale disapearance of coral seriously. The sea level has not gone up, it's not that. The sea temperature has not gone up, it's not that. There have not been significantly more storms. The bleaching of corals below 6 inches excludes UV as the culprit. We need to find out what it is.

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

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Pollution is not the solution

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

not to discount all the problems stressing these animals but there is a hope that the "bleaching" (the loss of whatever photosynthetic microbe that normally coexists with coral - three kingdoms of lifeforms have "algae") is merely that these microbes have not adapted to the new conditions yet and may repopulate the coral animals quickly once the necessary genetic changes have happened.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein