Massive coral bleaching in the Barrier Reef Article

[pyro383]

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

 

[Evergreen]

That's really bad. They actually said there is a chance they could recover if they can grow or aquire new zooxanthellae. Would be a scarey world if all the corals only lived in aquariums..

 

[kevin21]

not sure if any of you have seen it, but in the movie coral reef adventure...it explains all of the bleaching and why it is occuring. also discusses how we can try to save it!

i was thinking if nobody had seen it, maybe i can bring it to one of the meetings. its about 45 mins long.

 

[ming81]

I believe I've seen that movie
But I believe they stressed more on pollution into the rivers and those pollution going into the ocean which provides too much silt and killed the reefs.
Most of the bleaching occuring now is due to high ocean temps from I would guess the green house effect

 

[Julio]

it all comes down to global warming

 

[Justjoe]

Not to take away from any concerns like run off, siltation, etc, but it can't be forgotten that bleaching events are the reefs way of clearing the area for regeneration, much like forest fires are needed to maintain a healthy forest in the long term.
In our minute time frame of looking at things, a forest fire is often reported as a disaster, much like when Mt. St Helens erupted and leveled 1000's of square miles of forest... it'll be back and more dynamic then before the eruption.
Joe

 

[Spracklcat]

Good point--massive die offs actaully increase the amount of diversity in a given ecosystem. When an area has been established for some time, the competition for ecological niches has to some degree run its course, and the "winners" outcompete the "losers", limiting the number of species there. Wehn an area is wiped out, it's fair game for all new colonization and many new plants and animals come in and battle it out.

 

[Neurotech]

If warming is an ongoing process, not cyclical, (and if it doesn't occur all too quickly), wouldn't the reef continue to extend into what are now more temperate waters?