U.S. coral reefs in trouble, scientists warn

[Manuel]

Almost half the coral reef ecosystems in United States territory are in poor or fair condition, mostly because of rising ocean temperatures, according to a government report released Monday.

The reefs discussed in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report serve as breeding grounds for many of the world's seafood species and act as indicators of overall ocean health.

Coral reefs in trouble, scientists warn - CNN.com

 

[editec]

They're in trouble world wide.

The changing temperature and Ph is killing them.

As the ocean absorbs more CO2 it changes the acidity.

Here's something to ponder...

The world's oxygen is mostly created by oceanic plant life.

What happens if the oceans/ plankton levels change significantly as the PH changes?

I'm not holding my breath to find out, let me tall yas'.

 

[CharlestonChad]

They're in trouble world wide.

The changing temperature and Ph is killing them.

As the ocean absorbs more CO2 it changes the acidity.

Here's something to ponder...

The world's oxygen is mostly created by oceanic plant life.

What happens if the oceans/ plankton levels change significantly as the PH changes?

I'm not holding my breath to find out, let me tall yas'.

You will have NO problem. Oceanic plant life will exist if Co2 is present. It is the way of nature. If a resource exists, species will exists. We find species in all regions of the world. In fact, if Co2 continues to rise we will only see more algae blooms and aquatic plant life.

 

[AllieBaba]

Good grief, the reefs have been in trouble for 40 years.

 

[waltky]

Hawaiian coral suffers from bleaching...

Scientists see severe coral bleaching near Oahu
6 Oct.`14 — While people in Hawaii have been sweating out a lack of trade winds, corals underwater are also suffering.

Scientists standing in the muggy heat at Heeia Small Boat Harbor in Kaneohe said Monday that they're seeing more evidence that higher-than-normal ocean temperatures are causing near-shore bleaching across the islands. The warm water prompts algae inside the coral to leave, which starves coral and turns it white. It's the same phenomenon causing mass bleaching that was detected about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu. The bleaching that crews have found along Oahu's windward coast is especially severe, according to officials at Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources.

This September was the second-hottest on record since the 1940s, with recent underwater temperatures as high as 86 degrees, scientists noted. A maximum of 83 degrees is normal. "It is fairly common to see some level of bleaching around this time of year," said Anne Rosinski, marine resource specialist with the department's Division of Aquatic Resources, explaining that the peak season is August to September. But "this is way above average from what we would expect." She said 75 percent of the dominant coral species surveyed in Kaneohe Bay showed signs of bleaching — starting to lose color or bleached completely white.

There also have been reports of coral bleaching on Maui, the Big Island and at Honolulu's famed Hanauma Bay, a popular snorkeling spot, said Frazer McGilvray, administrator of the Aquatic Resources Division. The warm temperature is adding to the stress factors coral already face, such as pollution, sediment in the water, invasive algae and being trampled upon. "The corals are animals, right, they're not rocks," said Kim Hum, Hawaii Director of Marine Programs for The Nature Conservancy. "So what bleaching is, it's a sign of distress." She said people need to "make our coral as healthy as possible ... so that they can respond and they don't bleach and they don't die because of these additional stressors."

The current bleaching event is more severe than the last one in 1996. Almost all of the coral recovered from the localized bleaching that occurred in the earlier part of that year. But the latest event is amid higher temperatures later in the year, said Ruth Gates, researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. "And so, what we want is for the trade winds to return," she said, so that the coral can rebound. But the scientists said bleaching conditions will worsen in the next four to six weeks before the weather cools.

Scientists see severe coral bleaching near Oahu - Yahoo News

 

[Crick]

The OP's link does not work and a search of CNN for the title given produced no results.

An algae bloom is NOT a good thing. It algae tends to rise to the surface where it blocks the light hurting organisms below, like the algae that symbiotically coexists with corals - algae blooms are a very bad thing for corals.

Corals have proven sensitive to a number of factors but they're receiving a 1-2 punch here. Increasing temperatures and increasing CO2, worldwide, harm corals.

 

[Mr. H.]

There was a time in earth's history when there were no coral reefs.

Yet here we are...

And here we will be long after coral reefs are dead and gone.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

...rising ocean temperatures

LOLz

 

[Mr. H.]

It will be much simpler for humans to survive without coral reefs than it will be to survive without hydrocarbons.

 

[Mr. H.]

Without hydrocarbons, half the world's population would not exist today.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

They're in trouble world wide.

The changing temperature and Ph is killing them.

As the ocean absorbs more CO2 it changes the acidity.

Here's something to ponder...

The world's oxygen is mostly created by oceanic plant life.

What happens if the oceans/ plankton levels change significantly as the PH changes?

I'm not holding my breath to find out, let me tall yas'.

...and you can show us in a lab how a 120PPM increase in CO2 raises temperature and lowers ocean pH?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The Evolution of EnviroMarxism

Global Cooling
Global Warming
Climate Change
Climate Disruption
The Ocean ate my Warming

 

[Old Rocks]

NOAA CoRIS - Hazards to Coral Reefs

Coral reefs face numerous hazards and threats. As human populations and coastal pressures increase, reef resources are more heavily exploited, and many coral habitats continue to decline. Current estimates note that 10 percent of all coral reefs are degraded beyond recovery. Thirty percent are in critical condition and may die within 10 to 20 years. Experts predict that if current pressures are allowed to continue unabated, 60 percent of the world's coral reefs may die completely by 2050 (CRTF, 2000). Reef degradation occurs in response to both natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) stresses. Threats to coral reefs can be also classified as either local or global: local threats include overfishing, destructive fishing practices, nutrient runoff, sedimentation, and coral disease while global threats include mass coral bleaching produced by rising sea surface temperature (worsened by climate change), and ocean acidification. Together, these represent some of the greatest threats to coral reefs.

A problem exists. Denial does not change the problem.

 

[jon_berzerk]

We're sorry! This page is not available. Please visit the CNN homepage or use the search box below.

i guess it is too late

--LOL

 

[CrusaderFrank]

NOAA CoRIS - Hazards to Coral Reefs

Coral reefs face numerous hazards and threats. As human populations and coastal pressures increase, reef resources are more heavily exploited, and many coral habitats continue to decline. Current estimates note that 10 percent of all coral reefs are degraded beyond recovery. Thirty percent are in critical condition and may die within 10 to 20 years. Experts predict that if current pressures are allowed to continue unabated, 60 percent of the world's coral reefs may die completely by 2050 (CRTF, 2000). Reef degradation occurs in response to both natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) stresses. Threats to coral reefs can be also classified as either local or global: local threats include overfishing, destructive fishing practices, nutrient runoff, sedimentation, and coral disease while global threats include mass coral bleaching produced by rising sea surface temperature (worsened by climate change), and ocean acidification. Together, these represent some of the greatest threats to coral reefs.

A problem exists. Denial does not change the problem.

Tell them about those Oregon Oysters, that was real evidence of the Glacier Eating Ocean Warming Spaghetti Monster

Sent from smartphone using my wits and Taptalk

 

[Dot Com]

deniers think that the oceans are optional NEWSFLASH!!! All things are interconnected.

 

[jc456]

deniers think that the oceans are optional NEWSFLASH!!! All things are interconnected.

Warmers don't know anything.

 

[waltky]

Military gonna use Oyster Reefs to Protect Against Storms...

Military Turns to Oyster Reefs to Protect Against Storms
December 26, 2017 — Earle Naval Weapons Station, where the Navy loads some of America's most sophisticated weapons onto warships, suffered $50 million worth of damage in Superstorm Sandy. Now the naval pier is fortifying itself with some decidedly low-tech protection: oysters.

The facility has allowed an environmental group to plant nearly a mile of oyster reefs about a quarter-mile off its shoreline to serve as a natural buffer to storm-driven wave damage. Other military bases are enlisting the help of oysters, too. In June, environmental groups and airmen established a reef in the waters of Elgin Air Force Base Reservation in Florida, and more are planned nearby. Oysters also help protect Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. Three oyster reefs protect the USS Laffey museum in South Carolina. And military installations in Alabama and North Carolina have dispatched their enlisted personnel to help build oyster reefs in off-base coastal sites.

Oysters growing on larger shells at the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Middletown, N.J.​

They are among hundreds of places around the U.S. and the world where oyster reefs are being planted primarily as storm-protection measures. And a bill just introduced in Congress would give coastal communities $100 million over the next five years to create "living shorelines" that include oyster reefs. "Having a hardened structure like that oyster reef will absorb some of that wave energy," said Earle spokesman Bill Addison. "All the pipes and cables that are on the pier now, all of that was washed away and had to be rebuilt. And there was a lot of flooding that came into the base. Will this protect us against all of that? No, but it will do a significant amount of good to protect the base and the complex and our surrounding communities." The NY/NJ Baykeeper group has been experimenting with oysters at the Navy pier since 2011, originally as a way to see if the shellfish, through their natural filtering ability, might help improve water quality in the murky Raritan Bay. (They did somewhat.)

In summer 2016, the group planted the oyster reef primarily as a storm protection measure — a trend that has taken hold around the world within the past decade or so, according to Bryan DeAngelis, a program coordinator for The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island. Every coastal state in America is using oyster reefs as either a combination storm-protection or a water improvement project, or both. In addition to cleaning the water, the oyster reefs help blunt the force of incoming waves. "They are nice speed bumps," said Meredith Comi, an official with the Baykeeper group.

Meredith Comi of the NY/NJ Baykeeper environmental group lifts concrete cages that are submerged offshore to create oyster reefs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Middletown, N.J.​

Environmentalists say "living shorelines" including oyster colonies are far preferable to, and cheaper than, armoring the coast with steel seas walls or wooden bulkheads that invariably accelerate erosion of the sand in front of such manmade structures. "Waves are affected by the roughness of the bottom," said Boze Hancock, a marine restoration scientist with The Nature Conservancy who has studied and participated in oyster projects around the world. "Picture a wave trying to roll over a huge sponge, compared to one rolling over an asphalt parking lot. The `sponge,' or rough, uneven oyster reef, sucks the energy out of the wave as it rolls toward the shore."

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, recently introduced The Living Shorelines Act, which would make coastal communities eligible for $100 million over five years in federal grants for oyster reefs and wetlands plants. Its prospects remain uncertain in the Republican-controlled Congress. In most spots, the oysters are designed not to be harvested and eaten. But in other places, including New Jersey, the oysters have been planted in polluted waterways where shellfish harvesting is prohibited, leading to concerns about poachers stealing them and sickening customers. Such a dispute forced Baykeeper to rip out an oyster reef it planted a few miles from the Navy pier and relocate the shellfish to waters near the pier that are patrolled by gun-toting boats.

Military Turns to Oyster Reefs to Protect Against Storms

 

[Old Rocks]

Good grief, the reefs have been in trouble for 40 years.

Well yes, that is about when the intense warming started.

 

[Old Rocks]

There was a time in earth's history when there were no coral reefs.

Yet here we are...

And here we will be long after coral reefs are dead and gone.

Fucking dumb. Coral reefs are the oceans richest life zone. Erase them, and the repercussions will ripple throughout the oceanic food chain.