What will you dive when the coral is gone?

[Altamira]

I've been involved in a number of coral 'studies'. interestingly, the funding is only available for studies that are looking to prove man is responsible for Global Warming. A number of marine scientists have had their funding refused because they wouldn't sign up to that mission statement.

Perhaps the scientific community would prefer to see the money spent on ways we can help reduce our impact on Global Warming rather than waste it trying to show that we are not a major contributor to the problem. Just my opinion.

I learned to dive on a Carribean island that was just at sea-level, 40 years of the sea level is rising in the media and; guess what? The island is still just at sea-level - no change.

This is what NOAA says about your observation on local sea level.
"What's the difference between global and local sea level?
Global sea level trends and relative sea level trends are different measurements. Just as the surface of the Earth is not flat, the surface of the ocean is also not flat—in other words, the sea surface is not changing at the same rate globally. Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average due to many local factors: subsidence, upstream flood control, erosion, regional ocean currents, variations in land height, and whether the land is still rebounding from the compressive weight of Ice Age glaciers.

Sea level is primarily measured using tide stations and satellite laser altimeters. Tide stations around the globe tell us what is happening at a local level—the height of the water as measured along the coast relative to a specific point on land. Satellite measurements provide us with the average height of the entire ocean. Taken together, these tools tell us how our ocean sea levels are changing over time."

ALSO: "Global sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in recent decades. In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average—the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year...."
Data from: Is sea level rising?

 

[StefinSB]

Or the corals will adapt. There are coral species in the Red Sea that thrive in warm water. They are thought to be descendants of corals that thrived in 30 degree celsius water. There will be changes, but life will evolve and change like it has for millions of years. Extinctions are nothing new.

Nobody that believes in evolution will dispute that statement. The question is about timelines. It is: species will adapt in time vs how quickly do changes occur.

 

[kaerius]

Nobody that believes in evolution will dispute that statement. The question is about timelines. It is: species will adapt in time vs how quickly do changes occur.

Corals are basically colonies inhabited and grown by microbial organisms, here's food for thought: how long is a generation for these microbes? What's a single microbe's life expectancy and how quick is the reproductive cycle? We've evolved fruit flies in labs, they have a generational cycle of a day... how long does it take for coral to evolve? It might be faster than we imagine.

Sidenote: I know I'm kind of muddying it up in the above. There's two factors at play here: the generational cycle of the polyps, and of the algae that they're in symbiosis with. Coral bleeching is when the corals lose their algae, so it's how long the algae takes to evolve that's probably the more pressing question.

 

[arew+4]

They are not microbes, they are multi-cell organisms, evolution is much slower as a result. Adaptability is key to biological success. Pandas and Quolas are examples of evolutionary dead ends. Lion fish have proven to be highly adaptable. Corals have been around for many millions of years ( or maybe just 7,000 ) and their method of sexual reproduction can help them to colonize distant more favorable areas.

Maybe in a million years there will be colorful reefs of the coat of what was Delaware.

 

[tursiops]

I've been involved in a number of coral 'studies'. interestingly, the funding is only available for studies that are looking to prove man is responsible for Global Warming. A number of marine scientists have had their funding refused because they wouldn't sign up to that mission statement.

I learned to dive on a Carribean island that was just at sea-level, 40 years of the sea level is rising in the media and; guess what? The island is still just at sea-level - no change.

This entire post is questionable.
The first paragraph is hearsay and whining, and not true. I worked for and with 6 major research funding agencies for 4 decades, and not once in that time did I ever hear a funding officer or reviewer say anything like that, even over a beer and behind the scenes.
The first paragraph is just silly. Do you really think you can see a couple of inches of sea-level rise, even if it is at your location? Waves, tides, and wind-driven set-up get in the way. 40 years may be a long time for an individual, but it is a blip on the curve of constant increase.

 

[kaerius]

They are not microbes, they are multi-cell organisms, evolution is much slower as a result. Adaptability is key to biological success. Pandas and Quolas are examples of evolutionary dead ends. Lion fish have proven to be highly adaptable. Corals have been around for many millions of years ( or maybe just 7,000 ) and their method of sexual reproduction can help them to colonize distant more favorable areas.

Maybe in a million years there will be colorful reefs of the coat of what was Delaware.

Well, the algae are microbes. Still, corals have survived warmer ages than the current one. It's colder today than during the middle ages, and the roman optimum was warmer still, and neither of those were very long ago in evolutionary scales. The holocene climatic optimum was another long warm period. The temperature record is rife with periods warmer than the current day, even without looking back very far, you don't need to go back before the Azolla event to find significantly higher temperatures than today.

 

[drbill]

Sadly, I won't live long enough to see the coral replace our kelp forests (as they migrate further north) but my son and granddaughters may. Biogeography will win out even if some of our favorite coral reef destinations disappear. As a marine biologist, I hope they don't but I don't see much happening that will prevent it

 

[Edward3c]

Perhaps the scientific community would prefer to see the money spent on ways we can help reduce our impact on Global Warming rather than waste it trying to show that we are not a major contributor to the problem. Just my opinion.

This is what NOAA says about your observation on local sea level.
"What's the difference between global and local sea level?
Global sea level trends and relative sea level trends are different measurements. Just as the surface of the Earth is not flat, the surface of the ocean is also not flat—in other words, the sea surface is not changing at the same rate globally. Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average due to many local factors: subsidence, upstream flood control, erosion, regional ocean currents, variations in land height, and whether the land is still rebounding from the compressive weight of Ice Age glaciers.

Sea level is primarily measured using tide stations and satellite laser altimeters. Tide stations around the globe tell us what is happening at a local level—the height of the water as measured along the coast relative to a specific point on land. Satellite measurements provide us with the average height of the entire ocean. Taken together, these tools tell us how our ocean sea levels are changing over time."

ALSO: "Global sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in recent decades. In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average—the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year...."
Data from: Is sea level rising?

For an organisation that prides itself as being the authority on maritime matters, for the US, I’m surprised none of their statements are supported by reference sources. Are we to just take their word for it?

I’ve studied both plate tectonics and oceanography and am well aware sea level varies worldwide. For example parts of the U.K. are sinking whilst other areas are rising, because of the rebounding from the last ice-age. The US’s rising sea levels may be from the heavy continental rock sinking into the mantle. Nothing to do with ice sheets. No one wants to report the increases in the thickness of the Antarctic ice-cap. As it goes against the politically correct reporting culture.

The whole issue of global warming is whether man is impacting the planet. The [H2 18O]:[H2 16O] molecule ratio from ice cores from Greenland indicate the current warming started before the industrial revolution, with temperature rising 50 years ahead of CO2 increases [Open University, “Ocean Chemistry and Deep-sea Sediments”, S330, 1989]

This entire post is questionable.
The first paragraph is hearsay and whining, and not true. I worked for and with 6 major research funding agencies for 4 decades, and not once in that time did I ever hear a funding officer or reviewer say anything like that, even over a beer and behind the scenes.
The first paragraph is just silly. Do you really think you can see a couple of inches of sea-level rise, even if it is at your location? Waves, tides, and wind-driven set-up get in the way. 40 years may be a long time for an individual, but it is a blip on the curve of constant increase.

Silly, because I don’t support the commercial driven Global Warming argument. Then yes.

 

[oldschoolto]

I don't know.. I have fun diving anywhere...

 

[Johnoly]

I have a quandary........

No you don't.............We're actually growing corals in the keys!!

Prove that you are concerned and signup to help at Mote.org

"Mote's reef-building technique is called re-skinning and is based on observations that small fragments of brain, boulder and star coral from Mote's Summerland Key nursery will often rapidly fuse back together in the lab; in natural settings, these small fragments may form new coral heads over the dead skeletons of depleted reefs."