C3

Peer Reviewed Study: Another CO2 Scare Flops - Little Impact On Tropical Corals From Acidification

Previous studies have come to similar conclusions. The IPCC scary predictions about harm to coral from CO2 are unfounded.

Again, nature is not cooperating with the IPCC's fear-mongering.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Facts: Ocean Acidification Impact On Marine Species Overestimated, Study Finds

New research is documenting the actual carbon dioxide emission facts - the impact of ocean acidifcation on marine species has been exaggerated by alarmists

(image source)

Read here. Alarmists and anti-CO2 activists have loudly suggested that sea water that becomes more "acidified" will significantly harm marine species. Listening to the alarmists, one would surmise that mollusks such as clams and oysters would literally have their shells disappear from lower pH levels of oceans.

A new peer reviewed study by Parker et al. punctures this hot air balloon of alarmism with empirical evidence from actual experiments.

"The authors write that studies on the impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms that have been conducted to date "have only considered the impacts on 'adults' or 'larvae', ignoring the potential link between the two life-history stages and the possible carry-over effects that may be passed from adult to offspring,"...placed adults of wild-collected and selectively-bred populations of the Sydney rock oyster which they obtained at the beginning of reproductive conditioning - within seawater equilibrated with air of either 380 ppm CO2 (near-ambient) or 856 ppm CO2 (predicted for 2100 by the IPCC)...found that the larvae spawned from adults living in the "acidified" seawater were the same size as those spawned from adults living in near-ambient seawater; but they report that "larvae spawned form adults exposed to elevated CO2 were larger and developed faster."...concluding that the results of their work suggest that "marine organisms may have the capacity to acclimate or adapt to elevated CO2 over the next century."" [Laura M. Parker, Pauline M. Ross, Wayne A. O'Connor, Larissa Borysko, David A. Raftos, Hans-Otto Pörtner 2012: Global Change Biology]

Conclusion: Climate alarmists claims of the ocean acidification impact on marine species has not been factual. As researchers continue their research, the carbon dioxide emissions facts are being firmly established with empirical evidence while exposing the frequent fearmongering and exaggerations to scientific sunlight.

Previous species-endangerment, ocean-acidification and peer-reviewed postings.

Ocean Acidification Fears Debunked: Cold Water Coral Proven To Acclimate & Prosper In Lower pH Environment

Climate alarmist claims that coral will suffer long-term harm due to lower pH levels proven wrong by new study - ocean "acidifcation" fears debunked, robustly

Read here. With the failed global warming alarmism proving to be non-sustainable due to lower global temperatures, alarmists made ocean "acidification" their next predicted calamity to cause world collapse.

Scientists decided to research and analyze the non-scientific acidification claims by conducting experiments on cold water coral, which is considered to be most susceptible to lower pH levels. Much like the left's / liberal's embrace of fraudulent anti-vaccine fears, the researchers found the irrational acidification fears to be misplaced also.

"Ocean acidification, often termed ‘the evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity dissolves into the oceans. Presently, the ocean takes up about 25% of man-made CO2, which has led to a decrease in seawater pH of 0.1 units since 1800. By 2100, surface ocean pH values can easily drop by another 0.3–0.4 units...the impacts it may have on marine organisms and ecosystems are still poorly understood. A major gap in our understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification on life in the sea is the potential of marine organisms to acclimate and adapt to increasing seawater acidity"..."they found was that in an experiment that lasted only 8 days, that the growth rate of the coral was slowed down by the dissolution of extra CO2 into the aquarium water...In a second experiment in which the coral specimens were exposed to lower pH levels for 178 days, the growth rate did not decline, and in fact, even appeared to increase under the lower pH (more acid) conditions...Instead, growth rate, which was comparable to that of the control treatment in the short-term experiment, stayed high at elevated CO2 levels." [Armin U., Ulf Riebesell 2012: Global Change Biology]

Conclusions: #1 Ocean acidification fears debunked; #2 species like coral may adversely be affected in the short-term but become acclimated over the long-term; and #3 coral and other ocean species have existed and prospered in seas with lower pH levels

Previous coral-threat, ocean-acidification and peer-reviewed postings.

America's '60 Minutes' Reports That Coral Reefs Are Endangered By Other Factors, Not Global Warming

The mainstream print media has been misinforming the public for years about man's affect on coral reefs -  finally, '60 Minutes' tells truth that NYT & WAPO cover up

Read here. Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. is one of few climate scientists who has long insisted that human influence on climate is much more than just the CO2 greenhouse gas. For Americans, a recent the '60 Minutes' TV episode on the devastation of coral reefs pretty much vindicates Pielke's view that any number of non-CO2 factors significantly influence the world's climate and habitats.

"Scientists say the world's reefs are being harmed by a complex combination of factors; including pollution, agricultural runoff, coastal development, and overfishing. It turns out fish are essential to the health of a reef...The reason this reef's doing so well, Fabian Pina believes, is that it's far from the mainland and well-protected...Maybe it’s because this ecosystem is being protected, it’s got a leg up on other ecosystems around the world that are being heavily fished and heavily impacted by pollution. So that makes it more resilient. That’s one of the theories that if we do what we can locally that these reefs have a better chance of being resilient to what’s happening globally."

"There is a very important message from this news report. The risks to coral reefs are dominated by local interference by humans on its ecosystem function.  Such effects include local pollution (e.g. runoff from rivers and shorelines and from shipping; overfishing including the major predator species such as sharks)...Despite this short reference to  global warming in the CBS report, the report is quite an important addition to the broadening out of environmental issues beyond the myopic focus on global warming. The contrast between reef health near Veracruz, Mexico and the Cuba Preserve should convincingly show objective readers that coral bleaching from global warming is clearly not the largest threat to the health of tropical coral reefs."

Now, if only the MSM print media would also start informing their readers about the truth of climate change - that would be the truly real climate fix.

Previous postings on coral reefs and species-endangerment.

Experts Say Dangers To Reefs Have Been Overhyped By Greens - Coral Reefs Will Not Die Off As Claimed

Read here and here. Climate alarmist scientists and green activist groups have led an orchestrated hysteria about global warming and climate change over recent years. Near the top of their hysteria agenda is the claim that coral reefs would be destroyed, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) unless CO2 emissions were halted.

Now comes a peer-reviewed study by reef experts (Pandolfi et al.) published by Science that refutes the exaggerations and imminent death-by-CO2 claims.

"The world’s largest coral reef off the east coast of Australia is not going to disappear as fast as once previously thought, according to a new study. Warnings that the Great Barrier Reef could die off due to climate change over the next 20 to 30 years are exaggerated says Sean Connolly of the James Cook University.”..."some current projections of global-scale collapse of reefs within the next few decades probably overestimate the rapidity and uniformity of the decline.”..."However reefs are naturally highly diverse and resilient, and are likely to respond to the changed conditions in different ways and at varying rates.”" [John M. Pandolfi, Sean R. Connolly, Dustin J. Marshall, Anne L. Cohen 2011: Science]

Additional coral reef and peer-reviewed postings.

Scientists Determine Corals Are Highly Adaptive To Extreme Climate Changes, Global Warming Not A Problem

Read here. Without doing any empirical research, radical green groups (Greenpeace, etc.) claim that coral reefs will die off due to increased warming of ocean coastal waters. Actual scientists say that is wrong.

Bauman et al. published a peer-reviewed study regarding corals in the southern Persian Gulf area, which found corals to be hardy and resilient to extreme temperature fluctuations. Their research confirms what other coral studies have found:

"...three researchers report that the reproductive biology of the six coral species in the southern Persian Gulf "appears to be well adapted to extreme annual environmental fluctuations" and is "remarkably similar to conspecifics elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific (Baird et al., 2009a,b),"...say their work "confirms that corals are capable of reproductive activities under extreme environmental conditions," as has also been found to be the case by Coles and Fadlallah (1991) and Coles and Brown (2003). Hence, they state that "coral populations can survive and proliferate in extreme conditions that are projected to occur in many other regions of the world by the end of this century," buttressing their claim with the statement that "the recovery of these coral assemblages following mortality induced by a number of recent temperature-related bleaching events (1996, 1998 and 2002) suggests these assemblages are also resilient to extreme fluctuations in water temperature,"" [A. G. Bauman, A. H. Baird, G. H. Cavalcante 2011: Coral Reefs]

Additional coral-reef and peer-reviewed postings.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef Healthy & Unaffected By Climate Change, Peer-Reviewed Study Determines

Read here. A new study by coral reef experts was just published regarding the health of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The concern worldwide, and especially in Australia, is that human activities are destroying the GBR. Global warming alarmists have claimed, hysterically, that global warming was causing the GBR coral to die and the reef to shrink.

As Osborne et al. determined in their study, the GBR is alive and well in contrast to the non-scientific, alarmist hysteria.

"The authors write that "coral decline is frequently described as ongoing with the integrity and persistence of the reef system threatened by a number of different stressors,"...that "climate change is widely regarded as the single greatest threat to coral reef ecosystems."...they decided to quantify the trend in live coral cover of the GBR over the critical temporal interval of 1995-2009, which climate alarmists contend was the warmest decade and a half experienced by the planet to that point in time over the past millennium...four researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science report that "coral cover increased in six sub-regions and decreased in seven sub-regions," with some of the changes "being very dynamic and others changing little." But with respect to the entire reef system, they report that "overall regional coral cover was stable (averaging 29% and ranging from 23% to 33% across years) with no net decline between 1995 and 2009." And to emphasize this fact, they forthrightly state that they found "no evidence of consistent, system-wide decline in coral cover since 1995."" [Kate Osborne, Andrew M. Dolman, Scott C. Burgess, Kerryn A. Johns 2011: PLoS ONE]

Additional coral reef and peer-reviewed postings.

Latest Peer-Reviewed Research: Global Warming & Ocean Acidification Help Florida Coral Reefs Grow

Read here. "Consensus" climate scientists, the IPCC, fanatical environmental groups, and the MSM have all predicted the demise of coral reefs due to the twin evils of human-induced global warming and ocean acidification. Were the predictions just alarmist hype and fabricated lies to easily fool the anti-science liberals/progressives/leftists?

Researchers, Helmle et al., analyzed coral reefs from the Florida Keys to determine if they were degraded during the 20th century from the twin "evils" predicted. Hmmm....turns out the predictions were wrong. Instead, it would seem that coral reefs prospered under warmer and CO2-enhanced water conditions.

"The authors note that ocean acidification due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is claimed by many to be a threat to calcifying marine organisms; and they state that when ocean acidification is combined with physiological stress caused by concomitantly rising sea surface temperatures, "shifts in community structure and accelerating degradation of coral reef ecosystems may result."...Coral cores were collected in May of 1997 and June of 1998 from seven Montastraea faveolata colonies located in the upper Florida Keys...for these cores, annual extension, density and calcification rates were obtained and analyzed, to see how they varied over this period of intensifying warming and acidification of the global ocean...they demonstrate that "the measured corals have historically been able to maintain rates of extension and calcification over the 60-year period from 1937 to 1996 under the combination of local environmental and climatic changes." They also note that calcification rates were positively related to sea surface temperature, "similar to results for Porites corals from Tahiti (Bessat and Buigues, 2001) and the Great Barrier Reef (Lough and Barnes, 1997),"" [Kevin P. Helmle, Richard E. Dodge, Peter K. Swart, Dwight K. Gledhill, C. Mark Eakin 2011: Nature Communications]

Additional coral-reef, failed-prediction and peer-reviewed postings.

Newest Empirical Evidence: Coral Reefs Survive A Moronic Prediction By Green Alarmists

Read here and here. IPCC-friendly green activists got into the Climategate spirit by predicting that 40% of world's coral reefs would disappear by 2010. Like so many before it, this green activist hysterical prediction was totally fabricated out of thin air, having little relationship to reality.

"In 1997 the area of the world's coral reefs was estimated to be 255,000km2. Reference. If the prediction made on 4 Corners is to be believed, then in 2010 the area of the world's coral reefs should be around 153,000km². Instead, in 2011, one year on from that alarming forecast, we find that the global area of coral reef is estimated to be 249,713km². Reference. This amounts to a change from 1997 figures of -2.1%. Given the unreported uncertainties, there has essentially been no change in global reef area over the past 10 years. Within error, essentially none of the reefs are missing in 2010."

As is apparently true for all climate science AGW-related predictions, any made by green activists or tax-payer funded scientists is very suspect, especially if it is reported by the mainstream media.

Additional coral-reef and failed-prediction postings.

Complete Coral Reef Recovery From Extreme Warmth Provides Proof That Nature Can Adapt To Climate Change

Read here. Map source here. (click on image to enlarge)

A coral reef off the coast of Colombia was severely damaged by the heat of the 1982-83 El Niño. Close to 85% of the reef's coral was devastated, and then the 1997-98 El Niño struck putting more stress on the reef. Per the global warming alarmist's claims, this reef was destroyed for all future generations. The climate alarmists were wrong, again.

"Working with data they obtained over the period 1998-2004 from 20 permanent transects at two sites on one of the largest and best developed coral reefs in the Colombian Pacific (La Azufrada reef on Gorgona Island), plus data obtained there even earlier by others, Zapata et al. developed an extended history that revealed some interesting aspects of the reef's resiliency.....showed the reef at La Azufrada to have returned to "pre-disturbance (1979) levels of coral cover within a 10-year period after the 1982-83 El Niño, which caused 85% mortality," and that, subsequently, "the effects of the 1997-98 El Niño, indicated by the difference in overall live coral cover between 1998 and 1999, were minor (<6% reduction)." And they indicate that "despite recurrent natural disturbances, live coral cover in 2004 was as high as that existing before 1982 at La Azufrada."" [Fernando A. Zapata, Alberto Rodríguez-Ramírez, Carlos Caro-Zambrano & Jaime Garzón-Ferreira 2010: International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation]

Additional coral-reef and peer-reviewed postings.

Prediction That Coral Reefs Will Decline Due To Global Warming Is Wrong Experts Conclude

Read here. Global warming alarmists and IPCC Climategate scientists have long been predicting that coral reefs will be destroyed by global warming, along with the the associated coral fisheries and tourism. This purely speculative prediction, based on zero empirical evidence it appears, has also been determined to be false as so many other climate doomsday predictions.

The Yamano et al. study discovered that tropical reefs adjacent Japan have expanded northward and remained stable along their southern end while modern global warming has taken place. The inescapable conclusion, based on this latest research, is that coral species easily and positively adapt to a climate change of warming; plus, the conclusion being 180 degrees opposite of the coral-doomsday prophecies from the IPCC-related scientists.

"We show the first large-scale evidence of the poleward range expansion of modern corals, based on 80 years of national records from the temperate areas of Japan, where century-long measurements of in situ sea-surface temperatures have shown statistically significant rises. Four major coral species categories, including two key species for reef formation in tropical areas, showed poleward range expansions since the 1930s, whereas no species demonstrated southward range shrinkage or local extinction. The speed of these expansions reached up to 14 km/year, which is far greater than that for other species. Our results, in combination with recent findings suggesting range expansions of tropical coral-reef associated organisms, strongly suggest that rapid, fundamental modifications of temperate coastal ecosystems could be in progress." [Hiroya Yamano, Kaoru Sugihara, Keiichi Nomura 2011: Geophysical Research Letters]

Additional coral reef postings; other peer-reviewed and failed-prediction postings.

New Research: Coral Reefs Will Thrive & Expand With A Warmer Global Climate

Read here. All scientists agree that during the Holocene, global temperatures were significantly warmer some 7,000 to 9,000 years ago. This warm climate meant sea temperatures were also warmer, which allowed coral reefs to grow to immense sizes, plus expand into the mid-latitudes, where they currently don't exist.

New peer-reviewed research by Woodroffe et al., based on the historical Holocene evidence record, suggests that coral reefs will respond favorably to any future global warming conditions.

"The nine researchers discovered an extensive relict coral reef around Lord Howe Island in water depths of 25-50 meters, which flourished in early Holocene times about 9000 to 7000 years ago, which they describe as "immense," as it was "more than twenty times the area" of the modern reef at that site.....say their finding "demonstrates that reefs were much more extensive 9000 years ago than they are at present at this latitudinal limit to reef growth," and they conclude that the "relict reef, with localized re-establishment of corals in the past three millennia, could become a substrate for reef expansion in response to warmer temperatures, anticipated later this century and beyond.""....."Hence, they opine that these and other similar sites "may represent important refugia from increases in sea surface temperature," ". [Woodroffe, C.D., Brooke, B.P., Linklater, M., Kennedy, D.M., Jones, B.G., Buchanan, C., Mleczko, R., Hua, Q. and Zhao, J.-X. 2010: Geophysical Research Letters]

Additional peer-reviewed postings and other coral reef postings.

Sea Corals Survive & Thrive At High Levels of CO2; Research Proves 'Ocean Acidification' Not A Major Problem

Read here. Because the CO2 alarmists keep losing the empirical evidence battle regarding global warming and climate change claims, they've turned to the bizarre hypothesis that human CO2 emissions will "acidify" the seas turning them deadly to all sea life, including sea corals. Like so many of the outlandish AGW-claims, this one does not stand up to empirical scrutiny either.

In a peer-reviewed study, Kreif et al. (2010) ran experiments to study the impact on sea corals in a water environment resembling those that would occur if extraordinary high levels of CO2 were found in the atmosphere. The result of the experiments found the sea corals not only surviving under low pH value extremes, but pertaining to certain health measurements, actually thrived.

"In the words of the seven scientists who conducted the study, "following 14 months incubation under reduced pH conditions, all coral fragments survived and added new skeletal calcium carbonate.....This was done, however, at a reduced rate of calcification compared to fragments growing in the normal pH treatment.....Yet in spite of this reduction in skeletal growth, they report that "tissue biomass (measured by protein concentration) was found to be higher in both species after 14 months of growth under increased CO2."....." and they write that "since calcification is an energy-consuming process ... a coral polyp that spends less energy on skeletal growth can instead allocate the energy to tissue biomass,".....In concluding their paper, Krief et al. say "the long acclimation time of this study allowed the coral colonies to reach a steady state in terms of their physiological responses to elevated CO2," and that "the deposition of skeleton in seawater with Ωarag < 1 demonstrates the ability of both species to calcify by modifying internal pH toward more alkaline conditions."" [Krief, S., Hendy, E.J., Fine, M., Yam, R., Meibom, A., Foster, G.L. and Shemesh, A. 2010]

The Findings of Three New Peer-Reviewed Studies: Coral Reef Damage From CO2-Warming Was Overblown Hype

Read here. Big-Government funded scientists and Big-Soros funded leftist-AGW-activists all predicted that CO2-induced "global warming" would cause permanent damage to the world's coral reefs. Now three new studies have found that the predictions of coral reefs' demise from AGW is categorically false.

The moral of the story? As is usually the case, government funded climate scientists and left funded activists are primarily on the agenda payroll to mislead and deceive. Their claims and predictions of AGW calamities should be heavily discounted as there is high likelihood that further science will expose them as agenda-driven, political-based garbage.

Fortunately, there are still objective scientists publishing science that doesn't kow-tow to the leftist, collective, agenda or the fabricated IPCC "consensus."

• "“Despite the multiple influences on the reef sites over the study period, the size classes of the corals studied showed resilience to change.” We suspected this all along – the coral reefs have been around for 100’s of millions of years! He states “What is apparent from this study is that despite the chronic and acute disturbances between 2002 and 2008, demographic studies indicate good levels of coral resilience on the fringing reefs around Discovery Bay in Jamaica.” Crabbe warns that “Unfortunately, previously successful efforts to engage the local fisherman in controlling catches around Discovery Bay have not been maintained, and it may be that the development of a Discovery Bay Marine Park is the only solution.” We get the message – don’t blame global warming, blame the local fishermen!"

• “The proportional increase in coral cover after 2.5 years was fairly high at reserve sites (mean of 19% per site) and significantly greater than that in non-reserve sites which, on average, exhibited no net recovery.” They conclude “Reducing herbivore exploitation as part of an ecosystem-based management strategy for coral reefs appears to be justified.” An important implication of the research is that the long-term impact of and recovery from coral bleaching events may be largely controlled by herbivore fish – rather than just global warming."

• "...they noted that “Coral assemblages in Moorea, French Polynesia, have been impacted by multiple disturbances (one cyclone and four bleaching events between 1991 and 2006).” Their conclusions include the statement “In addition, our results reveal that corals can recover rapidly following a dramatic decline. Such decadal-scale recovery of coral cover has been documented at some locations, but our results are novel in demonstrating rapid recovery against a backdrop of ongoing, high frequency, and large-scale disturbances.”"

Do Sea Corals Like Ocean Acidification? Peer-Reviewed Research Indicates They Do

Read here. There exists corals in several locations already thriving in open waters that possess the attributes of sea water under a condition of CO2 levels 2 to 3 times higher than today. The empirical evidence suggests that corals are fully capable of adapting to a wide range of conditions, including much higher levels of atmospheric CO2.

"...the two researchers report that "today, several reefs, including Galapagos, areas of Pacific Panama, and Jarvis (southern Line Islands), experience levels of aragonite saturation equivalent to that predicted for the open ocean under two times and three times pre-industrial CO2 levels"....."Probably the most important deduction to flow from these observations is the observable fact, in the words of Cohen and Holcomb, that "naturally elevated levels of inorganic nutrients and, consequently, high levels of primary and secondary production, may already be facilitating high coral calcification rates in regions with naturally high dissolved CO2  levels," which further suggests that earth's corals, with their genetically-diverse symbiotic zooxanthellae, are likely well equipped to deal successfully with whatever increase in the air's CO2 content will ultimately result from the burning of fossil fuels before other energy sources become viable..."

Additional sea coral postings.

What Damage Has Human CO2 Emissions Done To Coral Reefs? New Peer-Research Says 'Nada'

Read here. Climate science alarmists predicted that coral reefs would decline due to increase ocean "acidification" from human CO2 emissions. To test that prediction, scientists examined over 1,900 coral reefs in the Caribbean over a 35 year span. Other than an outbreak of a coral disease in 1981, the coral reefs have been stable, showing no impacts from changes in water pH.

"Schutte et al., as they describe it, "analyzed the spatio-temporal trends of benthic coral reef communities in the Caribbean using quantitative data from 3,777 coral cover surveys of 1,962 reefs from 1971-2006".....Clearly, the temporal history of Caribbean coral cover change does not bear any resemblance to the gradual and continuous decline that could have been expected from the concomitant increase in oceanic pCO2 and decrease in pH. Indeed, after suffering the sharp one-year decline caused by the white band disease outbreak, coral cover once again stabilized, which phenomenon, in the words of Schutte et al., "could be interpreted as relatively good news""

Will Warm Oceans Destroy Ocean Reefs As Predicted? Tasmanian Evidence Refutes Predictions

Read here. Ocean waters around the island of Tasmaina have warmed significantly over the last century. Have these warm waters disrupted and destroyed the aquatic life within and among the reefs surrounding Tasmania as climate models and AGW alarmists predicted?

Australian researchers conducted a peer-reviewed scientific study and determined that the prediction of ocean warming harming coastal reefs was wrong.

Contrary to what they had expected to find, the four researchers discovered that "Tasmanian shallow rocky reef communities have been relatively stable over the past decade," in spite of the "substantial rise in sea surface temperature over this period" and the "continuation of a considerable warming trend in oceanographic conditions over the last 50 years." ....Contrary to many people's expectations, as well as their own initial thoughts on the subject, the Australian scientists found very little evidence to support the "doomsday" scenarios of the world's climate alarmists, who foresee continued global warming decimating earth's highly productive coastal marine ecosystems.

Corals Not Affected Until CO2 PPM Levels of 2,100 Reached, Centuries From Now, New Peer Research Finds

Read here. For the oceans to become sufficiently "acidified" to have any impact on coral larvae, it would require an atmospheric CO2 level that exceeds 2100 ppm. The likelihood that level of CO2 will be attained due human emissions is extremely low, and very far into the future if it were to happen. The possible impact would be a reduction in size of larvae but would also include a positive increase in survivorship.

 

"In discussing their findings, the seven scientists say they indicate that "the survival of coral larvae may not be strongly affected by pH change," or "in other words," as they continue, "coral larvae may be able to tolerate ambient pH decreases of at least 0.7 pH units," which, in fact, is something that will likely never occur, as it implies atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the range of 2115 to 3585 ppm. In addition, if such high concentrations ever were to occur, they would be a long, long time in coming, giving corals far more than sufficient time to acclimate -- and even evolve -- to adequately cope with the slowly developing situation."

 

Can Coral Reefs Recover From Extreme Warming Events? Tanzania Research Proves They Can

Read here. During the extreme warmth of the Super El Nino of 1998, over 40% of northern Tanzanian coral reefs suffered from bleaching. A multi-national group of researchers documented not only the recovery of the reefs, but their actual improvement.

"repeated surveys "indicate general stability of these reefs over time," and they state that "in the context of the high bleaching and mortality of western Indian Ocean reefs after 1998, the general stability and improvement of these reefs six to seven years after the largest ENSO in recent history indicates reefs with considerable resilience to climate change."

As for recommendations to protect reefs in the future:

"all countries need to implement local  measures to protect their coral reefs, and not waste precious time thinking that they -- or even all nations acting in concert -- will ever be able to dictate the course of earth's climate over any foreseeable future timeframe. In addition, as we have repeatedly posited on our website, local environmental protection measures will almost surely enable earth's corals to better withstand the negative consequences of whatever global environmental pressures they may encounter in the future."

While CO2 Continues Its Relentless Increase, The Great Barrier Reef's Health Improves Markedly - Despite Predictions

Read here. Contradicting all the global warming alarmist claims and predictions that coral reefs are being killed by human CO2, the world's largest reef is prospering under conditions of higher CO2. Why? First, human CO2 does not harm corals, nor does a slow rise in temperature as experienced by the world since the end of the Little Ice Age. Secondly, if no-fishing regulations are enforced in coral reef areas, the entire coral environment improves, dramatically - this has been known science for many years.

"The results are actually quite impressive. Having a higher proportion of protected areas is good for marine life, it's good for fish and it's good for people who rely on the reef for a living...."

For more information about coral reefs, go here.

Is Human CO2 Causing Ocean Islands To Be Swamped By Rising Seas? Short Answer: Nope

Read here. Actually, the islands we refer to in the headline are more accurately coral atolls, as explained in the article. We've done postings on atolls, coral reefs and oceans rising before but this article is the best compilation of pertinent information we've read - it is definitely a 'keeper'.

"What can be done to turn the situation around for the atolls? From the outside, not a whole lot. Stopping the Czechs from burning coal won’t do a damned thing. From the outside, we can offer only assistance. The work needs to occur on the atolls themselves. There are, however, a number of low-cost, practical steps that atoll residents can take to preserve and build up their atolls, and protect the fresh water lens. In no particular order these are:"

Read the linked article for the solutions the islanders need to take themselves, instead of their blaming others and seeking monetary handouts.

BTW, this is another example of the bogus climate alarmist science that the IPCC and certain  climate scientists have promulgated. For fame, glory and riches, these scientists are causing needless lawsuits instead of focusing the attention of politicians on the real solutions to maintaining Earth's health, be it atolls or the Amazon or other. Eventually, historians may well view the "global warming" fraudulent science as a crime against humanity.

New Peer-Reviewed Research Finds Coral Reefs Are Incredibly Resilient, Recover From Severe Incidents Quickly

Read here. A major scare claim by global warming alarmists is the for-sure destruction of coral reefs by climate change. Of course, they say this knowing full well that corals have survived millions of years of climate change already. In a recent example of the amazing resilience of coral, a reef was battered by multiple severe events, including: a category 5 cyclone (Firinga, of 29 January 1989) that caused 99% coral cover loss; a severe coral bleaching event in March 2002 that followed on the heels of cyclone Dina of January 2002; plus other bleaching episodes in 1983, March-April 1987 and February 2003.

Despite this extreme havoc over multiple years, the researchers discovered:

"the coral community distribution and composition in 2006 on Saint-Leu Reef did not display major differences compared to 1973....This pattern of recurrent recovery is truly remarkable, especially in light of the fact that "in the wake of cyclone Firinga, Saint-Leu Reef phase-shifted and became algae-dominated for a period of five years," and even more amazing when one is informed that following an unnamed cyclone of 27 January 1948, no corals survived."

Old Consesus, "Coral Reefs Are Doomed" - New Consensus, Coral Found To Be More Robust Than Previously Assumed

Read here. The Keppel Island coral reefs of the Australian Great Barrier Reef has experienced severe coral bleaching multiple times. Based on the best scientific guesstimate consensus, it was determined these corals were doomed because of global warming and climate change. Fortunately, we still have scientists that will actually do field research and investigate. And to the consternation of climate alarmist scientists and pundits around the world, here's what they found at Keppel:

"...have shown rapid recovery of coral dominance, despite repeated coral bleaching events (1998, 2002, and 2006), severe flood plumes (e.g. 1991, 2008), and dense algal overgrowth," Diaz-Pulido et al. conclude that these and other reefs that are "able to rapidly recover abundant corals may serve as key refugia, or sources of larvae for reef recovery at broader scales," and that the unique phenomena they documented in their research "may well be critical to the overall resilience and persistence of coral reef ecosystems globally."

Marine Research Is Now Discovering That Ocean Oscillations Causes Coral 'Bleaching', Not Global Warming, Not Human CO2

Read here. Anything climate event that is perceived as negative usually results in leftist/liberals (and the MSM) assigning blame to the supposed human-caused, "unprecedented" global warming. Unfortunately for global warming alarmists, objective science always seems to find causes other than human CO2 emissions. The large coral bleaching event of 1998 is another one of those that scientists have determined was not human CO2-based but a result of natural, cyclical events.

Are Coral Reefs At Risk? Peer-Reviewed Studies Indicate That Corals Successfully Adapt & Evolve To Thermal Changes

Read here. Alarmists claim that coral reefs will go extinct due to global warming but all evidence points to corals adapting to new thermal conditions and thriving.

Study Finds That 'Local' Human Impact On Coral Reefs Is Much More Important Than Global CO2

Read here. Stopping increased physical destruction, water and runoff pollution, augmented sedimentation and over-fishing are key to coral reef health.

More Research Findings That Alarmist Claim of Coral Reef Destruction Due To 'Acidification' Is Bogus

Read here. Research finds more CO2 enhances coral growth.

"Many are the people who have predicted that rates of coral calcification, as well as the photosynthetic rates of their symbiotic algae, will dramatically decline in response to what they typically refer to as an acidification of the world's oceans, as the atmosphere's CO2 concentration continues to rise in the years, decades and centuries to come. As ever more pertinent evidence accumulates, however, the true story appears to be just the opposite of what these climate alarmists continue to tell us."

Are Maldives & Other Reef Islands Going To Slip Beneath Waves Due To Rising Seas? Latest Research Says 'No'

Read here. Climate model future predictions look to be wrong, again.

#25. Key Finding of International Scientific Panel's Analysis of Climate-Change

Synopsis: Coral reefs are not fragile; they have survived much hotter climates.

Source here. "The persistence of coral reefs through geologic time—when temperatures were as much as 10°- 15°C warmer than at present, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations were two to seven times higher than they are currently—provides substantive evidence that these marine entities can successfully adapt to a dramatically changing global environment."

More Evidence That Coral (and Other Species) Are Not As Fragile As Climate Alarmists Wildly Claim

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"So death is not the corals’ only response to change. The ability of corals to shuffle symbionts is an effective adaptive strategy for dealing with environmental changes, such as changes water temperatures and light levels...Add these two studies to a growing case file in support of the resiliency (rather than the fragility) of Nature. While coral bleaching appears to be mass suicide to uninformed senators, it could actually be an excellent adaptive strategy that has allowed the species to survive for millions of years."

After Extreme Warming Event, What Happened To Bleached Coral? As Documented Before, Coral Recovers

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"The authors write that "dense coral patch reefs in the Saih Al-Shaib and Jebel Ali areas of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were heavily impacted by a 2°C positive sea surface temperature anomaly in the summer[s] of both 1996 and 1998," and that "bleaching virtually eliminated Acropora species that had constituted over 98.7% of the reef building coral in the area."....."After having been "virtually eliminated," the researchers report that "in the decade since the mass bleaching event, there are signs of extensive recovery of Acropora cover in parts of Saih Al-Shaib, ..."Noting that "the patterns of resilience and resistance observed in Saih Al-Shaib have important implications both regionally and globally," Burt et al. state that "the rapid recovery of corals following major stress events 2-4 years apart observed in this study does indicate that regional pockets of resilient taxa can withstand these perturbations.""

Coral Reef Killer: CO2 From A Boat or Scuba Diver's Sunscreen Lotion? EPA 'Lotion' Endangerment Soon?

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"Based on these results and conservative estimates of global sunscreen use and potential sunscreen release in and around tropical reefs, Danovaro et al. further calculated that approximately 10% of the world's coral reefs are at risk of sunscreen-induced bleaching."

Coral Bleachings A Common Occurrence In Past; Warming Actually Helps Reefs Expand - Renowned Expert Says

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"Characteristic bleaching scars and isotope temperature records from coral cores commonly show evidence of past bleaching events going back thousands of years. There is no evidence for a recent increase in frequency and/or severity of bleaching events and nothing to link extended periods of calm winds with global warming...In past geologic periods when global climate was warmer than at present corals enjoyed greater latitudinal distribution. The most likely effect of a warming climate on reefs would seem to be an expansion of their geographic distribution and there is some evidence this is already happening."

Caribbean Coral Reefs Prevailed Through Warmer Periods; CO2 Not Problem, It's Human's Other Harmful Actvities

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"The first of these studies indicates that "large species of branching Acropora  corals dominated shallow reefs in the tropical western Atlantic for at least half a million years until the 1980s, when they declined dramatically." The second study indicates that throughout this long period of time, the earth experienced several glacial/interglacial cycles for which we have good proxy temperature data, and that the four interglacials that preceded the one in which we now live were all warmer than the current one -- and by an average of more than 2°C! Hence, the Acropora corals that have taken such a nosedive in health -- and actual existence  -- over the past quarter century are clearly able to tolerate temperatures significantly in excess of those of the present (all else being equal), which current temperatures may also be less than temperatures experienced during the Holocene Climatic Optimum and the Medieval Warm Period of only a few and one thousand years ago, respectively......the study of Gardner et al. (2003a), who assessed the extent of decline in coral cover across the Caribbean via a meta-analysis of data obtained from a total of 263 sites described in 65 scientific studies. This effort revealed, in their words, "a massive region-wide decline of corals across the entire Caribbean basin, with the average hard coral cover on reefs being reduced by 80%, from about 50% to 10% cover, in three decades." However, they also report that "the rate of coral loss has slowed in the past decade compared to the 1980s," and they say "there is no convincing evidence yet that global stressors (e.g. temperature-induced bleaching and reduced rates of carbonation via enhanced levels of atmospheric CO2) are responsible for the overall pattern of these recent coral declines." Instead, they more logically lay the blame at the feet of "local factors originating both naturally (e.g. disease, storms, temperature stress, predation) and anthropogenically (e.g. over-fishing, sedimentation, eutrophication, habitat destruction)," which they say "are occurring at Caribbean-wide scales.""

Major Coral Reef Studies Reveal Corals Can Easily Survive & Thrive w/ Global Warming and Higher Levels of CO2

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"Focusing on the planet's past, the two marine biologists note that throughout the early to middle Holocene (from 10,000 to 6,000 years ago), extratropical North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were 2-3°C warmer than at present (Balsam, 1981; Ruddiman and Mix, 1991), and that reefs dominated by staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) were common along the east coast of Florida as far north as Palm Beach County (Lighty et al., 1978). In addition, they note that this period "correlates with maximal coral diversity at the northernmost position of coral reefs in the Pacific," and that "evidence from both terrestrial and coastal habitats shows that warming during this millennial-scale, high-amplitude climate flicker caused many species from a variety of ecosystems to expand their ranges northwards (COHMAP, 1988; Delcourt and Delcourt, 1991; Dahlgren et al., 2000)." Of particular interest, in this regard, they note that "Veron's (1992) study of a mid-Holocene fossil reef at Tateyama [the world's highest latitude Pacific coral reef] showed that even a brief period of warming of only 2°C doubled species richness from 35 to 72 species at the latitudinal extreme of extant corals.""

Can Coral Reefs Recover & Adapt From Significant Climate Changes? Yes, And Quickly, Experts Find

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"Golbuu et al. examined recovery rates of coral communities on the Palauan reef complex at two depths (3 and 10 m) at several different sites (nine outer-reef wave-exposed sites, four on the east coast and five on the west coast; two patch reef sites; and two sheltered-bay sites) 3, 4 and 7 years after the 1998 El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-induced bleaching event.....Golbuu et al. write that "the recovery on some of Palau's reefs was similar to, albeit less rapid than, recovery on a lava flow reported by Tomascik et al. (1996)," in which "remarkable coral community development" occurred "on a bare andesitic lava substrate following a major volcanic eruption in the Banda Sea, Indonesia," where "in five years, coral coverage averaged over 60%, supporting 124 coral species." They also cite Guzman and Cortes (2001) in this regard, noting that the latter two researchers had found that "populations of massive and branched corals in 1997-1998 were more tolerant to elevated thermal stress than populations in 1982-1983 [when another ENSO-induced period of high sea surface temperatures occurred] in Costa Rica, where both events recorded similar warming trends and temperature maxima," which observations led the two scientists to suggest that over the time period between the two events, the region's corals "had adapted to these warmer conditions."

Coral Bleachings: Did They Start Occurring Only After A Huge Increase In Human CO2 Emissions? Studies Say 'No'

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"Yu et al. describe how they "dated massive Porites  and microatolls on the reef flats of Younshu and Meiji Reefs, Nansha area, southern South China Sea using high-precision thermal ionization mass spectrometric (TIMS) U-series dating techniques,""....."The seven scientists report that "at least six mortality events occurred simultaneously on both reefs (e.g. in 1869-1873, 1917-1920, 1957-1961, 1971, 1982-1983 and 1999-2000 AD), reflecting the occurrence of large-scale regional events." In addition, they say that "many of these mortality events appear to correlate in time with historic El Niño events, and were probably related to El Niño-induced high sea surface temperature bleaching.""

Ocean Acidification and Corals: Empirical Data Reveals Corals Flourished At Much Higher CO2 & Temp Levels

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Coral Reefs Won't Be Harmed By Warming; But UN Needs To Finally Focus On Pollution & Fishing To Protect Reefs - A UN Failure

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Remote Coral Island Reveals The Effect Of Earth's Orbit On The Climate - 100,000 Year Cycle

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Pioneering Coral Reef Scientist: Actual Climate Evidence Refutes Global Warming Model Predictions - Climate Not Well Understood

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