ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News
Heat and cold damage corals in their own ways
Thu, 02/02/2012 - 09:46Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Long-term response plan for possible Cuban oil spill
Mon, 01/30/2012 - 09:31Researchers are working on long-term sustainability study to prepare for an oil spill that could catastrophically impact Florida.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs
Thu, 01/26/2012 - 22:45Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan -- a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula -- found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974. But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Lessons in coral reef survival from deep time
Mon, 01/23/2012 - 09:48Lessons from tens of millions of years ago are pointing to new ways to save and protect today's coral reefs and their myriad of beautiful and many-hued fishes at a time of huge change in the Earth's systems. Today's complex relationship between fishes and corals developed relatively recently in geological terms -- and is a major factor in shielding reef species from extinction, say experts.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Unprecedented, human-made trends in ocean's acidity
Sun, 01/22/2012 - 15:25Recent carbon dioxide emissions have pushed the level of seawater acidity far above the range of the natural variability that existed for thousands of years, affecting the calcification rates of shell-forming organism.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Multiple partners not the only way for corals to stay cool
Fri, 01/20/2012 - 18:42For the first time scientists have shown that corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae can have different levels of thermal tolerance -– a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'
Fri, 01/20/2012 - 18:42Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says a professor.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Sea cucumbers: Dissolving coral reefs?
Thu, 12/22/2011 - 15:20Coral reefs are extremely diverse ecosystems that support enormous biodiversity. But they are at risk. Carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the ocean, threatening reefs and other marine organisms. New research analyzed the role of sea cucumbers in portions of the Great Barrier Reef and determined that their dietary process of dissolving calcium carbonate (CaCO3) from the surrounding reef accounts for about half of at the total nighttime dissolution for the reef.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Belize protected area boosting predatory fish populations
Wed, 12/21/2011 - 21:12A 14-year study in an atoll reef lagoon in Glover's Reef, Belize has found that fishing closures there produce encouraging increases in populations of predatory fish species. However, such closures have resulted in only minimal increases in herbivorous fish, which feed on the algae that smother corals and inhibit reef recovery.
Categories: Coral Feeds
When the heat's on, some fish can cope: Certain tropical species have greater capacity to deal with rising sea temperatures than thought
Mon, 12/05/2011 - 10:26Australian scientists have discovered that some tropical fish have a greater capacity to cope with rising sea temperatures than previously thought – by adjusting over several generations. The discovery sheds a ray of hope amid the rising concern over the future of coral reefs and their fish under the levels of global warming expected to occur by the end of this century.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Submarine springs offer preview of ocean acidification effects on coral reefs
Mon, 11/28/2011 - 13:27Observations at submarine springs found along the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula are giving scientists a preview of the possible fate of coral reef ecosystems in response to ocean acidification. The naturally low pH in the water around the springs creates conditions similar to those that will result from the widespread acidification of surface waters that scientists expect to occur as the oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Protecting the red coral of the Catalan coastline, Spain
Fri, 11/25/2011 - 16:10Poaching accounts for the loss of up to 60% red coral biomass in the Medes Islands Marine Reserve, according to a new article. The article reports the first study of poaching and its effects in the marine reserve and raises the alarm about the impact of recreational diving on the coral population of the Medes Islands.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Scientific sleuths pinpoint the guilty coral killers
Wed, 11/23/2011 - 13:33The elusive culprits that are killing countless coral reefs around the world can now be nabbed with technology normally used to diagnose human diseases, marine researchers say. Coral researchers and reef managers will be able to identify coral infections using a new method that allows them to classify specific diseases based on the presence of microbes. This could lead to more effective action to reduce the impact of disease on the world's imperiled coral reefs.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Caribbean fisheries highly vulnerable to climate change, need to adapt
Wed, 11/23/2011 - 13:30A new study predicts severe negative impacts, including loss and alteration of habitats, smaller and less-diverse fish stocks, and coral bleaching, and urges prompt action to help fisheries prepare.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Corals can sense what's coming
Fri, 11/18/2011 - 13:30Scientists have thrown new light on the mechanism behind the mass death of corals worldwide as the Earth's climate warms. Coral bleaching, one of the most devastating events affecting coral reefs around the planet, is triggered by rising water temperatures. It occurs when the corals and their symbiotic algae become heat-stressed, and the algae which feed the corals either die or are expelled by the coral.
Categories: Coral Feeds
'Fishy lawnmowers' help save Pacific corals
Thu, 11/10/2011 - 13:01Can fish save coral reefs from dying? Researchers have found one case where fish have helped coral reefs to recover from cyclones and predators.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Sea life 'must swim faster to survive' to survive climate change
Mon, 11/07/2011 - 16:19Fish and other sea creatures will have to travel large distances to survive climate change, international marine scientists have warned. Sea life, particularly in the Indian Ocean, the Western and Eastern Pacific and the subarctic oceans will face growing pressures to adapt or relocate to escape extinction, according to a new study.
Categories: Coral Feeds
US residents say Hawaii's coral reef ecosystems worth $33.57 billion per year
Fri, 10/21/2011 - 12:50The American people assign an estimated total economic value of $33.57 billion for the coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands. The findings came from survey of 3,100 households -- from all US residents, not just Hawaii or coastal residents. Survey allowed the public to express its preferences and values for protection and restoration of the coral reef ecosystems around the main Hawaiian Islands.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Clustered hurricanes reduce impact on ecosystems, researchers find
Mon, 10/17/2011 - 14:56New research has found that hurricane activity is "clustered" rather than random, which has important long-term implications for coastal ecosystems and human population. Tropical cyclones and hurricanes have a massive economic, social and ecological impact, and models of their occurrence influence many planning activities from setting insurance premiums to conservation planning.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Chemical warfare on the reef: Molecules used by certain seaweed to harm corals
Mon, 10/17/2011 - 14:56Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.
Categories: Coral Feeds
