Coral Reefs Dead By 2050

Status
Not open for further replies.

-=Efrain=-

Active member
What will become of our aquarium reefs when the real reefs bleach because of global warming by the year 2050? Will the government step in and confiscate them. Will it be illegal to sell or trade coral because they are an endangered species? Or will the government be glad we have them at home for the possibility to transplant them back into the parts of the ocean that are not effected by global warming?
 
ur fos there is no global warming its just a scare tactic used by the gov to make you more dependant on them. Do you really think that if we stop using factories,suv's,using less power the rest of the world will too? No we will be come weaker and not the most powerful nation in the world. Yes we need to recycle,yes we need to stop polution in the oceans. But comon! be reasonable, dont jump to the global warming bs, its the biggest crock of poop ever.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11796571#post11796571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brandon7491
ur fos there is no global warming its just a scare tactic used by the gov to make you more dependant on them. Do you really think that if we stop using factories,suv's,using less power the rest of the world will too? No we will be come weaker and not the most powerful nation in the world. Yes we need to recycle,yes we need to stop polution in the oceans. But comon! be reasonable, dont jump to the global warming bs, its the biggest crock of poop ever.
Grammar FTW!
Kindafailhomedepot.jpg
 
Re: Coral Reefs Dead By 2050

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11795749#post11795749 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by -=Efrain=-
Will the government step in and confiscate them. Will it be illegal to sell or trade coral because they are an endangered species?

Then I'd just be forced to move my frag farm underground like my other grow operat... nevermind :)
 
"ur fos there is no global warming its just a scare tactic used by the gov to make you more dependant on them."

might want to check where you get your info from... the government isn't the ones saying this... scientists from all over the world are. (those are the type of people that go to college, study and use numbers and stuff) but sure, you can continue to think you can do whatever you want at the expense of other environments (out of sight out of mind right?)

as for the OP, not sure what will happen. My guess... the US Gov. will be slow to act as their waters are protected from collection - other countries ship us corals so they will probably continue to ship until their reefs are dead. Our gov. won't confiscate corals or do anything for that matter... our hobby is so low on their radar right now. “maybe” if all corals become endangered they will be listed or something which can prevent import into the US. Crappy thing is â€"œ sometimes lists require scientific names and I think we all know that many corals/fish etc. are shipped with incorrect names (if they’re even documented for that matter)
 
Yeah. Global warming doesn't exist, smoking is a perfectly healthy lifestyle choice and if you wear pastel sports jackets with a skinny tie and boatshoes with no socks you'll get all the ladies! ...err wait, I'm stuck in the 80's again... crap.
 
No one is making any scientific predictions that global warming will kill off coral reefs within the next 50 years. Corals have lots of little tricks to deal with higher temps, so it's not really clear that higher temps will be a long-term problem for reefs rather than a passing issue (nor is it clear that increasing temps won't be a long term issue).

In fact what poses a much more immediate threat to reefs worldwide is acidification due to increasing dissolved CO2. That is the problem that has been predicted to shift corals into fall behind state by 2050. However, that still doesn't mean they'll be dead. They'll still be lingering for a while, but net growth of reefs will be negative. Growth and recruitment will start to fall behind erosion, sea level rise, and death/disturbance. Some corals will probably still be around. They just won't be the dominant reef forming species like we see today. Other organisms (probably algae) will take over.

When that happens pretty much all conservation potential for the reefs will be gone. We just don't have the resources to wait for conditions to improve to the point that favored reef formation again, which could take a few thousand years at least. Our corals in the hobby are of very little conservation use anyway due to genetic problems and potential for introduction of exotic species.

I suspect the fate of corals within the hobby will pretty much mirror that of corals in the wild. As wild reefs give up the ghost, international trade will stop and interstate trade will be highly regulated to the point that very few new people enter the hobby. The captive specimens will slowly die off as people have tank crashes or decide to get out of the hobby and can't find anyone willing to take their corals. Eventually things will unceremoniously fizzle out and zoos and aquariums will probably have the last living corals.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11800073#post11800073 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
I suspect the fate of corals within the hobby will pretty much mirror that of corals in the wild. As wild reefs give up the ghost, international trade will stop and interstate trade will be highly regulated to the point that very few new people enter the hobby. The captive specimens will slowly die off as people have tank crashes or decide to get out of the hobby and can't find anyone willing to take their corals. Eventually things will unceremoniously fizzle out and zoos and aquariums will probably have the last living corals.

yup =( fraggers kind of hold onto a false hope.
 
Global warming does concern the sh*t out of me, but I'd have to say corals are pretty low on my list of worries. Few groups of organisms have hundreds of millions of years under their belt like corals do, and they've survived darn near everything the planet (and solar system) has thrown at them.

They are long distance dispersers, live in habitat that is virtually unfragmentable by their standards, make their own food OR are broad generalists at a very low trophic level. They can reproduce vegetatively or breed with their own or many other "species" in their genera.

IMO they will probably be one of the last things on the planet to disappear.

Now it would not surprise me at all if the reefs of the Caribbean are wiped out completely and the species diversity worldwide is greatly decreased within my lifetime. But I would bet $10 million the reefs of the world are not gone by 2050.

Keep in mind here that I am a rabid conservationist and dedicate my personal and professional life to stemming the loss of biodiversity on this screwed up planet. And I absolutely love reefs! But losing sleep over the future of corals I am not.

-Tim
 
Tims right.
If the coral reefs are really in that much trouble, we have far greater issues to worry about then the availability of corals to the hobby.
The sustainability of ocean based protien to feed millions of people is so much more important then our leisure pursuits.
I hope that the warming cycle peters out...perhaps due to some cause unforseen by us today.
But as Houseman said..."Train for ill, not for good."
Steve
 
yea, maybe not 2050 but imo there will be a significant difference from today (just the last 10-15 yrs look WAY different than the difference of 15-50 yrs ago)

reefs won't be "gone" completely by 2050 (or our lifetime - heck, I'll be in my 70's!) but if things don't slow down... I'm not sure they'll make it to 2200. Maybe their destruction will give rise to a new age... the algae/caulerpa age!! =P
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11801822#post11801822 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cortez marine
The sustainability of ocean based protien to feed millions of people is so much more important then our leisure pursuits.
I hope that the warming cycle peters out...perhaps due to some cause unforseen by us today.
Steve

I guess Ill have to throw a curve ball here. It is my honest opinion so hear me out. I would rather see the millions of people that depend on food from the ocean die off, then to see the reefs die because were destroying our planet.

On another note. If the world is warming up, as the area the reefs are in now get warmer and die off isnt there other places that are too cold for corals to grow currently that will then be warm enough to support a reef ecosystem?
 
Squid.. your second half of the post is talking about a small field in biology at the moment called ecological forecasting. Basically an analysis of how trends in climate and habitat shifts will effect populations of plants and animals. I'm not aware of any work done with this and corals.. maybe Greenbean will have some papers. But definitely try Google Scholar with "ecological forecasting" and coral as search terms. Let us know what comes up.

>Sarah
 
I would rather see the millions of people that depend on food from the ocean die off, then to see the reefs die because were destroying our planet.

Huh...?
People would die later BECAUSE the reefs die first.
Steve
 
"I would rather see the millions of people that depend on food from the ocean die off..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So long as you never run for political office I guess that quote will be forgotton.
Steve
 
Id love to run for office, and Id use that quote. However, until we remove all of the "career politicians" from the senate we will never have a president with a brain of his own and frankly being a puppet is not for me. But thats aside from the point.

On another note. I didn't even know about Google Scholar.

This is one of the hundreds of articles I found.

Studies in terrestrial systems suggest that long-distance propagule dispersal is important for landscape pattern and dynamics, but largely inconsequential for local demography. By contrast, in marine systems, dispersal at regional scales may drive local dynamics, because many species may have large mean dispersal distances. To assess variation in marine dispersal scales, we estimated mean dispersal distances from genetic isolation-by-distance slopes. Estimates ranged widely, from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers. Dispersal differed among taxonomic groups (macroalgae, invertebrates, and fish) and among species in different functional groups (e.g., producers and herbivores). Differences in dispersal scale have important implications for marine community dynamics, reserve design, responses to large-scale perturbations, and evolution of interacting species.

To place genetic estimates of marine dispersal in context, we compared them to other measures of dispersal in the ocean and to estimates of dispersal on land. Maximum scales of dispersal by sedentary marine species exceeded maximum estimates of terrestrial plant dispersal by at least one to two orders of magnitude. Direct and genetic estimates of terrestrial plant dispersal were comparable to estimates of marine plant dispersal. Rates of marine macroalgal range expansion, however, far exceeded spread rates of terrestrial plants. Terrestrial plant spread rates were more similar to those of short-dispersing marine organisms that lack secondary dispersal by drifting adults. Genetic estimates of dispersal by different functional groups suggest that herbivores typically disperse much farther than their plant resources both on land and in the sea, although the timing, frequency, and consequences of dispersal may differ in the two systems. Terrestrial herbivores have more flexible dispersal behavior than marine organisms that disperse each generation by planktonic transport of larvae.

Our results validate some long-standing views about the greater dispersal potential of species in the ocean, but also highlight the extreme heterogeneity in dispersal scale among marine species. As a result, development of a community perspective on marine connectivity will require consideration of multiple dispersal mechanisms and scales.
 
Oh by the way, there were over 4,000 hits searching for "ecological forecasting coral". Many of them seemed to have to do with studys on water quality and the distribution of algea though.
 
If the world is warming up, as the area the reefs are in now get warmer and die off isnt there other places that are too cold for corals to grow currently that will then be warm enough to support a reef ecosystem?

Not in your lifetime...
This "eco-system" drift beyond current tropical regions does not mean you'll be harvesting pocillaporas off of Redondo Beach anytime soon.
If this "coral-creep" does occur, no one here will be around to see it.
Steve
PS.
The quote was nonsense...PERHAPS YOU COULD RE-PHRASE IT?
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would rather see the millions of people that depend on food from the ocean die off, then to see the reefs die because were destroying our planet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Back
Top