One meter sea level rise will swallow over 2,700 km2 of Caribbean land area

From a post by Mark Eaken on NOAA's Coral_List listserve:

A new report spearheaded by the CARIBSAVE project under UNDP funding highlights the impacts of climate change on Caribbean nations and natural resources. In particular, the report highlights the difference in the impacts at the 2.0°C increase being pushed by many UN negotiators vs. the 1.5°C increase promoted by the Alliance of Small Island States. The report focuses on: the implications of ice sheet melt for global sea level rise (SLR); the projections and implications of SLR for the Caribbean region; evaluation of the differential impacts of +1.5° and +2°C on coral reefs, water resources and agriculture in the Caribbean, with additional analysis for the Pacific islands. Of particular interest are the sections on climate change and ocean acidification impacts on Caribbean coral reefs -- analysis led by NOAA's Coral Reef Watch and its partners.

Copies of the report's Key Findings, Executive Summary, and promotional posters can be downloaded from the CARIBSAVE Website at: http://www.caribsave.org/index.php?id=5

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All American oceanic birds threatened by climate change, research finds

From an article on NatGeo News:

All 67 oceanic bird species in the United States are imperiled by the changing climate, the authors of a comprehensive assessment said today.

Many land-based birds are also at risk as habitat and food sources change.

The findings are published in the State of the Birds 2010 report, a collaborative effort as part of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, involving federal and state wildlife agencies, and scientific and conservation organizations.

Partners include American Bird Conservancy, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Klamath Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey.

State of the Birds 2010 is the first comprehensive vulnerability assessment of bird species to climate change across the United States. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the report's release at a press conference in Texas today, along with several environmental organizations that had collaborated on the publication.

"As climate change impacts are increasingly felt throughout the United States and beyond, conservation efforts affecting birds will take on a doubly important role in protecting not only birds that are already threatened, but also more common birds as well," said David Pashley, vice president of American Bird Conservancy, in a news release about the report. Pashley was one of the authors of the report.

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As Florida Keys residents confront rising sea levels, what lessons?

From an article by Richard Luscombein the Christian Science Monitor:

Waters around the Florida Keys are nine inches higher than a century ago. Efforts to battle rising sea levels make the Keys 'a canary in the coal mine,' an indicator of what other areas might need to prepare for.

(Big Pine Key, FLA.) - On many mornings over the past 22 years, the Rev. Tony Mullane has pulled back his bedroom curtains and watched endangered Key deer roaming the grounds of St. Peter Catholic Church. He considers the free nature show one of the bonuses of his ministry in the Florida Keys.

On other days, however, there are no deer to be seen – only water from the Straits of Florida lapping perilously near to the church buildings.

"It does come close to the church in a high tide," says Father Tony, as he's known. "There's a gravel pit behind us that's supposed to be a natural buffer from the water of Coupon Bight, but it fills, and sometimes laps over into, the church grounds."

What is happening at St. Peter is being repeated across the length of the 125-mile, low-lying island chain off Florida's south coast. Average sea levels on the islands are already nine inches higher than a century ago, according to environmental studies. Flooding has become much more common, which has prompted local officials and others to explore remedies. But in some cases, just how the islanders should proceed is still being figured out. (Read here to learn how the Netherlands have fought rising sea levels.)

"High tides are higher today, reaching farther inland than they did in the past. And the frequency of tides high enough to flood streets and salt-sensitive natural areas is greater," says Chris Bergh, director of the Nature Conservancy's Florida Keys program, who cites both his own observations and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Some change is inevitable," adds Mr. Bergh, who lives on Big Pine Key with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Nate. "It's how we adapt to that change and manage it to our best advantage."

Of course, the Florida Keys aren't the only low-lying places in the United States. People in plenty of other coastal areas are keeping an eye on the sea level – and are concerned about the future.

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Take action during International Year of Biodiversity

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB), a unique opportunity to increase understanding of the vital role that biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth. Declared by the United Nations, IYB now has a multitude of international partners, will host many celebrations and events and provides key information about the importance of biodiversity.

The key message of the IYB is: Humans are part of nature’s rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it. Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on. Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on everyday. But we can prevent them. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. Let’s reflect on our achievements to safeguard biodiversity and focus on the urgency of our challenge for the future. Now is the time to act.

WILD is proud to be a partner of IYB and will continue to post news about biodiversity on the blog and in other publications throughout the year, especially the “Species of the Day,” which features a different IUCN red list species each day!

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Quiet hurricane seasons run counter to computer predictions

From an article in The New York Times by Evan Lehmann of Climate Wire:

Recent computer models predicting that more hurricanes will strike U.S. shorelines have vastly overestimated the financial losses suffered by insurance companies, according to a new analysis.

The simulations, called "near-term models" because they predict storm strikes over five years, were launched in 2006 after two vicious seasons of landfall hurricanes, including Katrina, crushed homes and businesses along much of the Gulf Coast and Florida. The models emphasize rising storm risk caused by warmer ocean water.

Now, with only one year left in those first forecasts, the models issued by three different firms have so far overshot the level of damage by tens of billions of dollars. A string of relatively benign hurricane seasons began just as the models were introduced.

Storms caused $13.3 billion in damages between 2006 and 2009, far below even conservative expectations. Near-term models predicted much deeper devastation, ranging from $48.8 billion to $54.6 billion during that same period.

"Four years into the five year projection period, the near term models have not performed well as predictive tools. Hurricane activity changes markedly from year to year, and the active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 have not proven to be harbingers of a continuing trend for 2006 through 2009," says a report by Karen Clark & Co., a risk management firm operated by an early architect of catastrophe models.

Near-term models are something of an experiment. Unlike traditional models, they don't use a century's worth of hurricane data related to frequency, landfall and wind speed. Instead, modelers input information from the warmest -- and most dangerous -- periods of the past. That's when hurricanes tend to strike with a fist.

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Last decade was the warmest ever, says NASA

From an Agence France-Presse article posted on Grist:

WASHINGTON—The past decade was the warmest ever, according to a new analysis of global surface temperatures released by NASA.

The U.S. space agency also found that 2009 was the second-warmest year on record since modern temperature measurements began in 1880. Last year was only a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest yet, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with the other hottest years, which have all occurred since 1998.

According to James Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, global temperatures change due to variations in ocean heating and cooling. “When we average temperature over five or 10 years to minimize that variability, we find global warming is continuing unabated,” Hansen said in a statement.

A strong La Niña effect that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean made 2008 the coolest year of the decade, according to the New York-based institute.

In analyzing the data, NASA scientists found a clear warming trend, although a leveling off took place in the 1940s and 1970s. The records showed that temperatures trended upward by about 0.36 degrees F per decade over the past 30 years. Average global temperatures have increased a total of about 1.5 degrees F since 1880.

“That’s the important number to keep in mind,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with the institute. “The difference between the second and sixth warmest years is trivial because the known uncertainty in the temperature measurement is larger than some of the differences between the warmest years.”

Last year’s near-record temperatures took place despite an unseasonably cool December in much of North America and a warmer-than-normal Arctic, with frigid air from the Arctic rushing into the region while warmer mid-latitude air shifted northward, the institute said.

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Coral can recover from climate change damage; fishing needs to be curbed

From an article on Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2010) — A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming.

Scientists and environmentalists have warned that coral reefs may not be able to recover from the damage caused by climate change and that these unique environments could soon be lost forever. Now, this research adds weight to the argument that reducing levels of fishing is a viable way of protecting the world's most delicate aquatic ecosystems.

Increases in ocean surface water temperatures subject coral reefs to stresses that lead quickly to mass bleaching. The problem is intensified by ocean acidification, which is also caused by increased CO2. This decreases the ability of corals to produce calcium carbonate (chalk), which is the material that reefs are made of.

Approximately 2% of the world's coral reefs are located within marine reserves, areas of the sea that are protected against potentially-damaging human activity, like dredging and fishing.

The researchers conducted surveys of ten sites inside and outside marine reserves of the Bahamas over 2.5 years. These reefs have been severely damaged by bleaching and then by hurricane Frances in the summer of 2004. At the beginning of the study, the reefs had an average of 7% coral cover. By the end of the project, coral cover in marine protected areas had increased by an average of 19%, while reefs in non-reserve sites showed no recovery.

Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter said: "Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth and are home to the highest biodiversity on the planet. As a result of climate change, the environment that has enabled coral reefs to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years is changing too quickly for reefs to adapt.

"In order to protect reefs in the long-term we need radical action to reduce CO2 emissions. However, our research shows that local action to reduce the effects of fishing can contribute meaningfully to the fate of reefs. The reserve allowed the number of parrotfishes to increase and because parrotfish eat seaweeds, the corals could grow freely without being swamped by weeds. As a result, reefs inside the park were showing recovery whereas those with more seaweed were not. This sort of evidence may help persuade governments to reduce the fishing of key herbivores like parrotfishes and help reefs cope with the inevitable threats posed by climate change."

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To save the planet, save the seas

From an op ed by Dan Laffoley, the marine vice chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas at the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the principal specialist for marine at Natural England, in the New York Times:

For the many disappointments of the recent climate talks in Copenhagen, there was at least one clear positive outcome, and that was the progress made on a program called Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation. Under this program, key elements of which were agreed on at Copenhagen, developing countries would be compensated for preserving forests, peat soils, swamps and fields that are efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas linked to global warming.

This approach, which takes advantage of the power of nature itself, is an economical way to store large amounts of carbon. But the program is limited in that it includes only those carbon sinks found on land. We now need to look for similar opportunities to curb climate change in the oceans.

Few people may realize it, but in addition to producing most of the oxygen we breathe, the ocean absorbs some 25 percent of current annual carbon dioxide emissions. Half the world’s carbon stocks are held in plankton, mangroves, salt marshes and other marine life. So it is at least as important to preserve this ocean life as it is to preserve forests, to secure its role in helping us adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Sea-grass meadows, for example, which flourish in shallow coastal waters, account for 15 percent of the ocean’s total carbon storage, and underwater forests of kelp store huge amounts of carbon, just as forests do on land. The most efficient natural carbon sink of all is not on land, but in the ocean, in the form of Posidonia oceanica, a species of sea grass that forms vast underwater meadows that wave in the currents just as fields of grass on land sway in the wind.

Worldwide, coastal habitats like these are being lost because of human activity.

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Reverse climate change

One of serveral posters from WWF. Click on picture to enlarge.

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Mexico's conch shells yield clues into effects of warming

From an article distributed by Agence France-Presse (AFP):

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec 21 (AFP)- Divers plumb the turquoise depths of ocean waters some 100 kilometers south of this vacation paradise, in search of the distinctive queen conch shell prized by vacationers and souvenir-seekers.
These divers were not searching for a Mexican holiday keepsake however.

They were scientists conducting vital research into the reach of global warming over the centuries in this fragile aquatic ecosystem.

The researchers were attaching electronic probes to about 60 specimen of the queen conch, also known by its marine name Eustrombus gigas, a species of large, edible sea snail native to these waters.

The scientists, who were seeking more information about the impact of climate change off of the Yucatan Peninsula, said the data they are collecting, they said, can provide information yielding information dating back to pre-Columbian times.

"Our findings will not only be relevant for the future of this species, but for mapping the future of global warming" said Dalila Aldana, lead investigator on the project.

The oversized pink conch, which have seen their habitat seriously degraded in the past decade and a half by global warming, are being tagged with computer sensors to monitor their eating and reproductive patterns. . . .

The research aims to identify the temperature variations over time and to determine how these are manifested in the conch shells and how they impact the viability of the mollusks.

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Sea level rise impacts on the Caribbean region

Frorm the summary of an upcoming report on the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean region:

The Caribbean will be affected more seriously by SLR [sea level rise] than most areas of the world; SLR in the northern Caribbean may exceed the global average by up to 25%. In addition, the impacts of tropical storms and hurricanes on coastal areas, even at present intensity and frequency, will be compounded by SLR. The impacts of SLR will not be uniform among the CARICOM nations, with some projected to experience severe impacts from a 1 metre SLR. In nations where low lying-land is extensive and who are therefore more exposed to the impacts of SLR and storm surge, concerns are of damage to agriculture, industry and infrastructure as well as salt water penetration into the groundwater reservoirs. For nations with a more complex topography and characterized by steep sloped coasts fronted by only a narrow strip of low lying land, the main concerns are landslides, beach erosion and disruption to infrastructure that is concentrated in limited flat land areas. In both cases, damage to mangroves and seagrass beds is of concern, especially since these areas are of importance in coastal protection as well as fishery resources.

In the case of most of the countries, the tourism industry is of particular concern, since it is preferentially located very close to the coastal, often in low-lying areas with highly erodible sandy beaches. These impacts and changes mean that much more needs to be done in terms of coastal protection and in the planning of coastal development.

It terms of protection, the importance of natural inhibitors to erosion, such as beaches and mangroves, needs to be emphasised. In terms of planning, attention needs to be paid to the location of industry, communication and of course housing. In addition, care will need to be taken in the ‘siting’ of tourist developments, which generally occur close to the coastline. In all these matters, the topographic and geologic setting of locations at risk must be taken into account. The most vulnerable CARICOM nations to SLR were found to be: Suriname, Guyana, The Bahamas, and Belize.

The key impacts of a 1 metre rise in SLR can be summarised as follows: over 2,700 km2of Caribbean land area lost and 10% of The Bahamas land area; with the market value of undeveloped land lost across the CARICOM nations being over US $70 billion. Over 100,000 people will be displaced (8% of the population in Suriname, 5% of The Bahamas, 3% of Belize). The cost to rebuild basic housing, roads and services water, electricity) for displaced population approximately US $1.8 billion. The annual GDP losses will be at least US $1.2 billion (over 6% in Suriname, 5% in The Bahamas, 3% in Guyana and Belize) not including hurricane and storm impacts on GDP. At least 16 multimillion dollar tourism resorts lost, with a replacement cost of over US $1.6 billion and the livelihoods of thousands of employees and communities affected. In addition to the impacts of increased temperature on agricultural yield over 1% agricultural land will be lost, with implications for food supply and rural livelihoods Transportation networks will be severely disrupted: 10% of CARICOM island airports will be lost at a cost of over US $715 million; lands surrounding 14 seaports will be inundated (out of a total of 50) at a cost of over US $320 million, the reconstruction cost of lost roads exceeds US $178 million (6% of road network in Guyana, 4% in Suriname, 2% in The Bahamas).

From Wikipedia:
Currently CARICOM has 15 full members:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas (not part of customs union), Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat (a territory of the United Kingdom), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

Associate members(all British overseas territories):
Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

There are seven observers:
Aruba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

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Coral and leatherbacks among climate change "flagship" species

From an article by Christine Dell-Amore on National Geographic News:

Starving koalas and homeless clownfish are among ten species likely to suffer huge losses due to global warming, according to a report released today at the Copenhagen climate change conference by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Although the ten species aren't those most at risk, IUCN selected them because they are well-researched "flagship" species that are being affected by a spectrum of climate change impacts, from melting sea ice to beach erosion.

"The polar bear has become an icon of climate change, and it's doing a fabulous job," report co-author Wendy Foden of IUCN's Species Programme said by phone in Copenhagen.

But "there are other species too [that] help to highlight what climate change is doing."

Sea Turtle Gender Bending
Many of the animals featured in the new report already appear on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species for other reasons, such as habitat destruction and overharvesting. This makes climate change an "additional and major threat," the report authors say.

For instance, critically endangered leatherback sea turtles are already at risk of becoming entangled in fishing nets or choking on plastic debris in the ocean.

In a warmer world, the sea turtles must also try to nest on beaches severely eroded by extreme storms, which have been linked to rising sea-surface temperatures.

In addition, a hatchling turtle's gender is determined by the average temperature during the egg's development—and hotter sand is spawning a disproportionately high number of females.

Bleaching
Perhaps the most vulnerable species on the new list is the staghorn coral, which has been greatly weakened by bleaching, IUCN's Fodel said.

Bleaching occurs when warmer oceans cause corals to lose their symbiotic algae, leaving the blanched reefs to slowly perish.

At the same time, coral declines mean that another of the report's threatened species, the clownfish, is suffering from lost habitat.

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Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification

From the Natural Resources Defense Council:

ACID TEST, a film produced by NRDC, was made to raise awareness about the largely unknown problem of ocean acidification, which poses a fundamental challenge to life in the seas and the health of the entire planet. Like global warming, ocean acidification stems from the increase of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Leading scientific experts on the problem, many of whom appear in the film and the outtakes . . . believe that it's possible to cut back on global warming pollution, improve the overall health and durability of our oceans, and prevent serious harm to our world, but only if action is taken quickly and decisively.

Watch the film on YouTube.

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A resource for members of the world ocean community

From the announcement launching a new Web site:

OCEAN and CLIMATE are locked in a continuous dance, the condition of one profoundly affecting the other. This powerful synergy is complicated and constantly adjusting to human interventions. Through this site, you can explore this complexity in its many forms -- the key issues and possible responses -- and express your views through our Ocean-Climate Forum. We invite you to join an interactive global conversation about ocean and climate and to engage in individual and collective efforts to address the challenging situations examined here.

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Copenhagen climate conference: What you need to know

From an article by Christine Dell'Amore on National Geographic News:

What Is COP15?
"COP15" acronym is short for the 15th Conference of Parties, or countries, to the UNFCC. COP15 is also the fifth meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding emissions-reduction treaty created in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. The Kyoto agreement aims to reduce global industrial greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 percent against 1990 levels over a five-year period—from 2008 to 2012.

The Kyoto climate treaty, which went into force in 2005, was ratified by 185 nations but not the United States.

Because the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, an "ambitious new deal" needs to be worked out this year to provide governments guidance beyond Kyoto, the UNFCC says.

What Are the Copenhagen Climate Conference's Goals?
The UN Framework on Climate Change aims to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to a level that will not create "dangerous" interference with the climate.

Though there is still debate as to what constitutes "dangerous," the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before the industrial revolution was 278 parts per million, contrasted with 381 today.

By 2050 the UNFCC hopes to cut atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in half, versus 2000 levels.

The Copenhagen climate conference has four achievable goals, according to the UNFCC:

1. Make clear how much developed countries, such as the U.S., Australia, and Japan, will limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Determine how, and to what degree, developing countries, such as China, India, and Brazil, can limit their emissions without limiting economic growth.

3. Explore options for "stable and predictable financing" from developed countries that can help the developing world reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.

4. Identify ways to ensure developing countries are treated as equal partners in decision-making, particularly when it comes to technology and finance.

Possible Outcomes of the Climate Conference?
According to the International Institute for Environment and Development, there could be several outcomes to the Copenhagen climate conference, including the following:

1. No agreement: The meeting could result in a decision to resume talks in 2010.

2. Voluntary agreement: The climate conference could yield nonbinding pact that allows each government to decide its own goals and how to reach them. Opponents to this approach argue that targets need to be internationally binding and enforced. Otherwise, they say, reductions will take too long or not happen at all.

3. Binding agreement: A new legally binding agreement, ratified at the December climate conference, could replace Kyoto when the protocol expires in 2012.

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Coral reef troubles indicate broader ecological problems

From a commentary by Jeff Wise on Mongabay:

Today, many of our planet's natural areas are seriously threatened by human incursion, overexploitation and global warming: Less than a fifth of the world's original forest cover remains in unfragmented tracts, while just one-third of coastal mangroves survive to protect coastlines from storms and erosion. But none of these are declining as rapidly as coral reefs. By revealing what could be in store for other natural systems, reefs resemble the proverbial canary in a coal mine.

Jacques Cousteau first brought the wonders of these underwater marine vistas to millions around the globe, just over 50 years ago. In award-winning documentaries like "Silent World," he captured in living Technicolor the awesome beauty of the Earth's oldest and largest living structures.

Providing a safe harbor where more than a quarter of all marine life can feed, spawn and raise their young, reefs' ecological diversity rivals that of the world's lushest rainforests. Unlike the forests, however, the relative remoteness of many reefs seemed to promise a small degree of protection for these fragile ecosystems.

What a difference 50 years makes.

The combination of destructive fishing practices and marine pollution hits reefs hard. A 2006 U.N. report found that close to one-third of corals are already destroyed or damaged, a figure that could double by 2030. And as reefs are extremely sensitive to changes in both the temperature and acidity of seawater, climate change will only make this situation worse.

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Coastal habitats may sequester 50 times more carbon than tropical forests by area

"I took a journalist interested in mangroves into a small lagoon where juvenile sharks could be found. Instead of finding sharks, we found a backhoe dredging a large sand spit across the lagoon. The work was being done without sediment traps and as we later found out, without permits. One mangrove shoot stood in the eventual path of the backhoe and I decided to get a shot of it standing tall - both condemned and yet defiant to the bitter end." Photo and explanation by Matthew D Potenski, MDP Photography/Marine Photobank.

From an article by Jeremy Hance on Mongabay.com:

Highly endangered coastal habitats are incredibly effective in sequestering carbon and locking it away in soil, according to a new paper in a report by the IUCN. The paper attests that coastal habitats—such as mangroves, sea grasses, and salt marhses—sequester as much as 50 times the amount of carbon in their soil per hectare as tropical forest.

"The key difference between these coastal habitats and forests is that mangroves, seagrasses and the plants in salt marshes are extremely efficient at burying carbon in the sediment below them where it can stay for centuries or even millennia. Tropical forests are not as effective at transferring carbon into the soil below them, instead storing most carbon in the living plants and litter," explains the paper's author and Conservation International’s Marine Climate Change Director, Dr. Emily Pidgeon. "But coastal ecosystems keep sequestering large amounts of carbon throughout their life cycle. Equally, the majority of carbon stays locked away in the soil rather than the plant, so only a relatively small amount is released when the plant dies."

This capacity for coastal environments to lock away carbon for thousands of years has largely been ignored in accounts of the global carbon cycle, according to the paper, even though the amount of carbon they are responsible for storing is very high.

Coastal habitats with vegetation "[contribute] about half of the total carbon sequestration in ocean sediments even though they account for less than 2 percent of the ocean surface,” Pidgeon writes, explaining that much of this is capacity is due to the fact that coastal vegetation usually spreads deeper below ground than it grows above with some plants going as deep as eight meters.

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Caribbean, Gulf spared widespread coral damage

From an article by David McFadden of the Associated Press:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Lower-than-feared sea temperatures this summer gave a break to fragile coral reefs across the Caribbean and the central Gulf of Mexico that were damaged in recent years, scientists said Thursday [November 5, 2009].

Unusually warm water in recent years has caused the animals that make up coral to expel the colorful algae they live with, creating a bleached color. If the problem persists, the coral itself dies — killing the environment where many fish and other marine organisms live.

"We dodged a bullet this year. The good news is that temperatures didn't get quite warm enough for there to be a large-scale bleaching problem," said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch network. He was among scientists gathered in Puerto Rico's capital for a meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force.

The worst coral bleaching in the region's recorded history occurred in 2005, when hot seas caused bleaching of as much as 90 percent of corals in the eastern Caribbean, with more than half of that dying.

In July, the Coral Reef Watch network warned that high temperatures this year might lead to severe coral problems because sea surface temperatures in parts of the Caribbean were unusually hot.

Eaken said the threat had passed for 2009, since temperatures are now cooling, but the problem could return.

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Protection sought for 83 coral species worldwide

From a news release issued by the Center for Biological Diverstiy:

SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a formal petition seeking to protect 83 imperiled coral species under the Endangered Species Act. These corals, all of which occur in U.S. waters ranging from Florida and Hawaii to U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, face a growing threat of extinction due to rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming, and the related threat of ocean acidification.

Scientists have warned that coral reefs are likely to be the first worldwide ecosystem to collapse due to global warming; all the world’s reefs could be destroyed by 2050.

“Coral reefs are the world’s most endangered ecosystems and provide an early warning of impacts to come from our thirst for fossil fuels,” said Miyoko Sakashita oceans director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Within a few decades, global warming and ocean acidification threaten to completely unravel magnificent coral reefs that took millions of years to build.”

Corals are among the species most imperiled by climate change. When corals are stressed by warm ocean temperatures, they experience bleaching — which means they expel the colorful algae upon which they rely for energy and growth. Many corals die or succumb to disease after bleaching. Mass bleaching events have become much more frequent and severe as ocean temperatures have risen in recent decades. Scientists predict that most of the world’s corals will be subjected to mass bleaching events at deadly frequencies within 20 years on our current emissions path.

Not only is greenhouse gas pollution causing corals to bleach and die, but it also makes it difficult for corals to grow and rebuild their colonies. Ocean acidification, caused by the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide, is already impairing the ability of corals to build their protective skeletons. At CO2 levels of 450 ppm, scientists predict that reef erosion will eclipse the ability of corals to grow. Moreover, ocean acidification and global warming render corals even more susceptible to other threats that have led to the present degraded state of our reefs, including destructive fishing, agriculture runoff, storms, sea-level rise, pollution, abrasion, predation, and disease.

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Humans Are Destroying Earth's Coral Reefs

From an article on CO2 Science:

In a major review of the status of earth's coral reefs and their prospects for the future, Riegl et al. (2009) write that "20% of the world's coral reefs are already lost, 24% under imminent risk of collapse, and another 26% in grave danger of irreparable damage," based on the results of the survey report of Wilkinson (2006). And, of course, they pay politically-correct homage to the role that the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 concentration may be playing in this regard. But is it really the case that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the dire straits in which the world's coral reefs currently find themselves?

The five U.S. researchers begin their analysis of the subject by noting that "coral reefs, similar to those we know today, have existed for approximately 215 million years (and, in another taxonomic guise, for about 500 million years)," even surviving the turmoil that brought about "the extinction of the dinosaurs and the climate changes of the ice ages," which known facts would seem to suggest, in their words, that earth's corals possess a "remarkable evolutionary resilience," which "would certainly suggest," as they describe it, that "there is scope for ecological resilience as well." So why are earth's coral reefs in so much trouble today?

Clearly, all forms of life on earth are subject to various environmental challenges that periodically threaten their existence on a large spatial scale; and corals are no exception. Tectonic upheavals, asteroid impacts, natural climate changes, disease pandemics and predator outbreaks: all of these challenges and many others confront earth's biosphere on a variety of different time scales and to a greater or lesser degree. So what is the cause of the current coral crisis?

The problem, as we and many others see it, is a whole set of what Riegl et al. describe as "smaller-scale, localized, and entirely man-made threats," among which they list "runoff, sedimentation, and nutrient enrichment; coastal construction leading to smothering of habitat and creation of high turbidity around coasts; overfishing and destructive fishing." In a study designed to reconstruct multi-century histories of fourteen coral reefs from various places around the world, for example, Pandolfi et al. (2003) found that "all reefs were substantially degraded long before outbreaks of coral disease and bleaching." In fact, they determined that the "degradation of coral reef ecosystems began centuries ago," when the world was in the midst of the Little Ice Age and the air's CO2 concentration was a hundred parts per million less than it is today. It is our belief, therefore, that this long-term degradation has severely weakened the ability of many of earth's corals to adequately cope with the challenges of temperature-induced bleaching and potential ocean acidification.

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