Depressing. The government isn't remotely taking the ecology seriously enough, except where tourism is affected, and even then the mining/Adani is more important.
If I understand correctly, the primary factor harming the corals is warmer ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. I'm not sure Australia has much influence over those.
Not the worst idea in the world. BUT, we're going to need to think carefully about taking million year processes and trying to speed them up to reverse climate change.
Not necessarily GMO, but there is some research into seeding corals with more resilient Zooxanthellae - the algae that is symbiotic with the coral itself. Often it's the Zooxanthellae that dies in the higher temperatures and that causes the coral to die because it derives nutrients from the algae.
People like to talk about technology saving us, but there is only one technology that can stop climate change now. I can't remember what it's called though. It's kind of a big wooden frame with a big metal thing that slides vertically. Used to be popular in France at one time.
Do we have evidence of what happened with coral reefs in earlier historical eras with much lower temperatures?
It’s surprising to me that the corals seem to be unable to survive the 1 degree warming (to date), and troubling because even if we stopped all carbon emissions at this point (IIRC) a 2 degree increase is pretty much guaranteed.
Tragically, I fear it’s already too late for the corals. But I wonder if we have evidence that they can adapt to temperature shifts under the right circumstances, and maybe there’s something we can do to help the ecosystem adapt?
> Do we have evidence of what happened with coral reefs in earlier historical eras with much lower temperatures?
Some extinctions happened. In most of the other cases, the corals had much, much more time to adapt.
Imagine going 0 to 60 in a minute vs going 0 to 60 in a millisecond. One of those is going to crush you into a paste. We're halfway through that millisecond, watching things get pasted all around us, and trying to figure out if we can somehow stop this process.
Gradual warming and cooling, even to relatively extreme temperatures and CO2 levels by today's standards meant that corals had many, many generations to adjust. Today, not so much.
It seems that most of the heat impact of global warming is absorbed by ocean waters (https://e360.yale.edu/features/how_long_can_oceans_continue_...)
Coral reefs typically live in rather shallow waters (less than 500ft according to wikipedia), because of their dependency of sunlight. So at this depth, there is already a strong daily variation due to day/night cycle, and I imagine a 1 degree average warming on earth is much potentiated in this environment.
Perhaps there is something to be done actively in short term in those environments to prevent this warming, but its so fragile as there are countless interactions between all the microorganisms that I that must be an enormous undertaking, if even possible.
There are corals that live in warmer waters such as in the Red Sea which has some of the warmest sea water on earth. There are also groups doing research on ways to help corals adapt to higher temperatures [1]
I also wonder if we'll start to see the GBR move south along the coast of Australia as waters that were previously not favorable to corals are now starting to warm.
The other problem in addition to warming is that as CO2 levels rise pH of seawater is going down. Hard corals require a pH that is somewhat alkaline (around 8.3 is ideal).
The marine fauna has been wiped a couple of times before. Corals will survive (probably), they had seen a few bad times before-
But coral reefs is a different and complex machine. Probably not, or will transform in a totally different structure. What we see now toke three thousands of years to physically develop. If you wipe a reef now, maybe you could expect a return to shape after 500 years. Reefs had survived atomic bombs.
Coral doesn't typically die due to rising ocean temperatures... it flees the reef. I think these articles are trying to be contrarian on semantics. Not great.
[+] [-] Sporktacular|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xnx|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tines|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gonzo41|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvaldes|5 years ago|reply
In any case hermatypic corals are often two species in one. Modifying one of them could not be enough
[+] [-] UncleOxidant|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comfyinnernet|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] burlesona|5 years ago|reply
It’s surprising to me that the corals seem to be unable to survive the 1 degree warming (to date), and troubling because even if we stopped all carbon emissions at this point (IIRC) a 2 degree increase is pretty much guaranteed.
Tragically, I fear it’s already too late for the corals. But I wonder if we have evidence that they can adapt to temperature shifts under the right circumstances, and maybe there’s something we can do to help the ecosystem adapt?
[+] [-] Pfhreak|5 years ago|reply
Some extinctions happened. In most of the other cases, the corals had much, much more time to adapt.
Imagine going 0 to 60 in a minute vs going 0 to 60 in a millisecond. One of those is going to crush you into a paste. We're halfway through that millisecond, watching things get pasted all around us, and trying to figure out if we can somehow stop this process.
Gradual warming and cooling, even to relatively extreme temperatures and CO2 levels by today's standards meant that corals had many, many generations to adjust. Today, not so much.
[+] [-] jyoshi|5 years ago|reply
Perhaps there is something to be done actively in short term in those environments to prevent this warming, but its so fragile as there are countless interactions between all the microorganisms that I that must be an enormous undertaking, if even possible.
[+] [-] jascii|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UncleOxidant|5 years ago|reply
I also wonder if we'll start to see the GBR move south along the coast of Australia as waters that were previously not favorable to corals are now starting to warm.
The other problem in addition to warming is that as CO2 levels rise pH of seawater is going down. Hard corals require a pH that is somewhat alkaline (around 8.3 is ideal).
[+] [-] pvaldes|5 years ago|reply
But coral reefs is a different and complex machine. Probably not, or will transform in a totally different structure. What we see now toke three thousands of years to physically develop. If you wipe a reef now, maybe you could expect a return to shape after 500 years. Reefs had survived atomic bombs.
[+] [-] JakeAl|5 years ago|reply
Coral expert debunks Great Barrier Reef myths https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/coral-expert-debunks-...
[+] [-] castratikron|5 years ago|reply
Oh, it wasn't dead, it was just on the brink of death. That's much better.
[+] [-] rvrabec|5 years ago|reply