Any one see this.. Coral bleaching in ocean

[yznhmr]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060314/sc_nm/environment_coral_bleaching_dc

 

[Zoalander]

Man that is sad.

 

[masson]

84 degrees is not the upper level for corals... Global warming... come on.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Been happening for years. In the short 8 years I've been diving, the reefs have changed tremendously. So has the population of fish.

 

[yznhmr]

90% bleached.. thats HUGE

 

[Pufferpunk]

Went to the Bahamas in November & everything was brown.

 

[mkirda]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6954413#post6954413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by masson
84 degrees is not the upper level for corals... Global warming... come on.

This is where a little knowledge of coral reef ecology and coral biology go a long way...

84 degrees can be the upper limit, especially in slack tides when the area is normally getting the upper ranges of 78 or so. This has been documented for something like 20 years.

For the true upper-limit, the number is generally accepted to be somewhere between 87 and 89 degrees for a period of a day or two.
A few hours, probably will recover. A week? Well, see the pic...

As far as global warming goes, all you need to do is look at the evidence with an open and critical mind.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[jdhanover]

A lot of stuff contributing i think - but all of it our own doing. Whether it is global warming or just straight out pollution into the oceans, it is all bad. Very sad.
We might need to start a lot more breeding tanks in order to keep some species alive.

 

[mkirda]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6956506#post6956506 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdhanover
A lot of stuff contributing i think - but all of it our own doing. Whether it is global warming or just straight out pollution into the oceans, it is all bad. Very sad.
We might need to start a lot more breeding tanks in order to keep some species alive.

Very true. Any reef near human settlement is under attack by many different stressors, most of them due to human development, which destroys portions of the greater ecosystem.

That being said, none of these stressors can kill an entire region as quickly as hot water. Not a golf course, not dredging, not untreated sewage. All of these are point sources, and the effects are still fairly localized. Not so with bleaching. The hot spots can cover hundreds of square miles and last for weeks.

I don't know how many of you read Coral-list, but there has been a very long thread on reef resiliency recently, over the course of the past few weeks. It is well worth the read.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[pk1]

Mike, thanks for the reference on the coral-list, interesting information over there.

Patrick