Coral Reefs!

I just wrote a big research paper on the effects of increasing CO2 levels and global warming on corals, and things look really bad.

Estimates say that the generations alive now will be the last to ever see coral reefs.

 

Yeah , not to mention all the water craft thats breaking them apart,,,,Its sad,,people take the most beautiful things and destroy them,

 

It's not so much the water craft as the pollution.

And in some locations, I've heard that the fisherman there, pour bleach onto the coral reef. This drives out the lobsters and makes it easier for them to catch. Of course the bleach kills the reef, so no more lobsters, so the fishermen have just destroyed their livihood...but hey...they got lobsters easily one day!

 

Coral are very set into their tempature range, it takes very little to kill them and most of their ecosystem is dependent on them.

 

true. ive heard of people trying to repair and regrow parts of coral reefs, however i dont think its going too well. It takes a really long time for coral to grow as it is, especially if it has human intervention

 

I hate to sound the pessimest but unless we get the global temp to at least stabalize then we can pretty much kiss coral reefs good by. Then with them gone we can kiss all the species that live in them good by. Then we can kiss some of the larger predators that depend on the smaller fish there good by. Then we can start to see the shock waves from that spread to other parts of the ocean, then to aspects of the land, then to ourselves.... Ok, now I'm depressed .

 

Although global warming and direct human degradation (including dynamiting, eutrophication, other pollutants) are killing the coral reefs, I believe the original poster is referring to a much more serious impact. As CO2 levels rapidly increase in the atmosphere, the CO2 gradually dissolves into ocean waters. This in turn increases the acidity of the ocean. In order to compensate for the increased acid, calcium carbonate (the hard part of coral) is dissolved until the ocean can once again reach equilibrium. It is predicted that all coral reefs will dissolve in the next 50 to 100 years. Essentially, this is the same processes that cause the marble structures to dissolve in heavily polluted cities.

 

What's bad about it?

I don't see your point here. Is this some sort of negative?

 

Coral reefs are the base of a huge ecosystem and food chain. If they go, so goes the life they support, and so goes a huge source of production for use by the human race in terms of food. So yeah, this has a negative affect.

 

Not to worry, the US Navy is on the case...

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4992158.stm

 

Humans can find different sources of food--we're rather adaptive that way.

Mass extinctions have occured on this planet since life began, and there's nothing negative about it. A mass extinction enabled dinosaurs to dominate the planet for millions of years; a mass extinction (involving dinosaurs) enabled mammals to become dominant. And after the next mass extinction, another form of life to rise out of the ruins of humanity will become dominant.

This is perfectly normal and any negativity exists solely in the minds of some human control freaks who have no grasp of the concept that death is important for new life.

 

That point of view is almost workable in theory, but really? Negativity doesn't exist? Is there anything you avoid? Falling off cliffs, starting fights with large gang members, spitting on old ladies, eating babies. I'm sure, since you've reached the age of 57 that there is stuff you avoid. You avoid it because it's negative. You don't want to experience the consequences of those actions, just like most people would not want to experience the consequences of losing coral reefs.

Yeah, people may adapt. Some. But many people and cultures survive on those things that will be destroyed. More people will starve, suffer, die, and/or live in horrible conditions because of this, and I dunno about you, but I would rather not see that happen. In fact, I would rather see it not happen.

 

im not trying to be an ass but your so concerned about it what are you going to do about it besides tell people about it?im not being an ass i swear just want to hear some of your ideas?

 

voodoo chili - I think he's just expressing his concern.

Duncelor - It is natural for things to die and more things to come out of that death if it is in a natural setting due to natural causes; this is man-made.

I personally think it's really depressing, just like all the pollution in the world and most of the world's people's apathy towards care for nature, but it'll take a while to get people thinking about this stuff unless their way of life is at risk.

 

the coral reef problems came hit home with me when i went sailing in the caribbean last christmas. i try to sail there as often as i can afford, and each time the coral has been more gray and less vibrant. there are also far fewer fish than the first time i went which was only about 8 years ago.


is anyone else as frustrated as me about people's refusal to believe in global warming? i have brought it up in alot of my classes and people just laugh and say they like the warm weather.

it's amazing how such small things can help, like turning your air conditioning/heat one degree closer to the outside temperature, or wearing your clothes a couple of extra times before washing them. i am amazed by how many people are unwilling to do these easy things. im sure it doesnt apply to many people on here, as you all seem like awesome environmental advocates, but do you have any ideas for how to be taken seriously when talking to other people?

 

In minutes, anchors can destroy what nature has taken generations to build. Allways anchor on sand beside the coral, never on the coral itself. When snorkeling or diving be careful of coral structures. Don't stand, bump into, get swept onto or grab coral structures. Don't take anything from the reef.

 

Ha, gotta love nihilists

With current rates of decline very few reefs will not have collapsed by the end of the century. Global warming, if unabated, is sufficient to kill most of the reef-building corals on the planet in and of itself. Ocean acidification (what I've worked on for my MS, in fact :cheers2 looks to have the capacity to seriously imperil not just reef systems, but most marine ecosystems, in and of itself. Combine these two along with local stressors and things start to look very much like the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, the last period of worldwide reef collapse. Most coral species, but obviously not all, went extinct and reef-building did not occur for 4 million years. It took quite a long while for recovery. If we induce similar events, coral reefs will likely be gone for much, much longer than just the foreseeable future.

Chris