John Bruno kicks off another part of his Reef Science coral series, excerpting a modified version of an article he published last year on the Earth Portal about Coral Reefs and Climate Change. He covers global patterns of coral loss and several of the mechanisms through which anthropogenic climate change is contributing to this trend including coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.  Let him know know if there are particular topics you want to hear about.  You can reach him at jbruno@unc.edu.

Benefits/Ecosystem Services of Coral Reefs

When they are working properly, coral reefs provide human societies with massive economic benefits, aka ecosystem services, through fisheries, tourism and invaluable services like buffering from storms, estimated to be worth $23,100 - $270,000 km -2 year-1. 

John Bruno kicks off another part of his Reef Science coral series, excerpting a modified version of an article he published last year on the Earth Portal about Coral Reefs and Climate Change. He covers global patterns of coral loss and several of the mechanisms through which anthropogenic climate change is contributing to this trend including coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.  Let him know know if there are particular topics you want to hear about.  You can reach him at jbruno@unc.edu.

In addition to the global and regional effects of climate change, there are several localized threats and impacts to coral reef ecosystems.  Reef fishes and some invertebrates are intensely harvested, which has greatly reduced their abundances and altered food web dynamics on all but the most isolated or intensely managed reefs.  Additionally, some fishing practices such as dynamite fishing and muro ami directly kill corals and can destroy the reef matrix. 

Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf has a lot to be thankful for.  As an oceanographer and physicist with a love for the ocean, he's combining elements of two passions into one.  With a new book, Our Threatened Oceans, he's letting the world know first-hand through his research that we should recognize how important the ocean is to our lives.  At the same time, he's also worried that the climate issue (as well as other problems) factor heavily into the change in the ocean and that we all must start working on fixing these concerns. 

Stefan, at least, is already figuring out how to do so.  With his work on the role of ocean currents in climate change, he was awarded the $1 million Centennial Fellowship Award of the US-based James S McDonnell foundation and since the year 2000, he is teaching Physics of the Ocean as a professor at Potsdam University.  Perhaps it will be Stefan who will lead the next future climate scientist to make a difference, just as he has. Here's what Stefan has to say about what we can do to help remedy the current dilemma facing our oceans. 

It's true that when I first decided to speak to Dr. Roger A. Pielke, Sr., it was for matters of climate.  I knew that he was a respected climate scientist who researched the effects of climate change on all forms of life. 

But things got even more interesting when I learned he could add past saltwater aquarium owner to the mix.   Upon being alerted to The Reef Tank blog, he made sure to point out this fact.

And so, the two of us had a plethora of topics to talk about.  How to maintain a saltwater tank, how to be a marine conservationist and aquarium owner, and of course, how exactly does climate change affect marine life and what does the media have to say about it? 

All these topics found below.

For more on Dr. Pielke's vast climate change research, visit his ClimateSci blog here.

John Bruno kicks another section of his Reef Science coral series, excerpting a modified version of an article he published last year on the Earth Portal about Coral Reefs and Climate Change. He covers global patterns of coral loss and several of the mechanisms through which anthropogenic climate change is contributing to this trend including coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.  Let him know know if there are particular topics you want to hear about.  You can reach him at jbruno@unc.edu.

It is clear that anthropogenic climate change is already negatively impacting the world’s corals and coral reefs.  The threat will almost surely grow over the next several decades as the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases and ocean warming and acidification accelerate.  Predicting future impacts of climate change on corals and coral reefs is complicated given all the uncertainty about the political response, future technologies, changes in human behavior, the earth climate system and the actual effects on reef inhabitants.  But even conservative forecasts suggest that we could loose coral reef ecosystems by the end of the 21st century.

I haven't talked a lot about marine impacts of climate change on my blog, Brave New Climate -- mostly because it is quite thoroughly covered by Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg in his Climate Shifts blog and Dr Simon Donner on Maribo. But in short, the marine environment is under severe stress from chronic human impacts (over-fishing, dredging, pollution [e.g., chemical and oil spills], structural damage [e.g., dynamite fishing on coral reefs], traffic [boat strikes]. etc.) and a double-whammy from climate change. Assoc. Prof. Corey Bradshawhere (slides and audio available). A recent editoral in the peer-reviewed journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, by Prof Charles Sheppard of the University of Warwick, UK, spells out just how grim this 'marine nutcracker' is. Why does he use the nutcracker analogy? Because: "... talked about this in detail coral reef calcification is squeezed, by temperature near the equator and by acidification from the poles". Let me explain further, by some selected citation from the essay.

Coby Beck may be a software developer specializing in Artificial Intelligence applications, but that's not what The Reef Tank thinks is the coolest thing about him! Here at TRT, we've been following his blog A Few Things Ill Considered, quite rapturously because of its intriguing climate change spin.  So when we got the chance to ask him a few questions and turn that climate change spin into one with a marine science angle, we jumped at the chance! 

Here's our Q&A with software engineer and science blogger Coby Beck.

John Bruno kicks off another part of his Reef Science coral series, excerpting a modified version of an article he published last year on the Earth Portal about Coral Reefs and Climate Change. He covers global patterns of coral loss and several of the mechanisms through which anthropogenic climate change is contributing to this trend including coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.  Let him know know if there are particular topics you want to hear about.  You can reach him at jbruno@unc.edu.

There are many causes of local and global coral loss but human-induced climate change is one of the main and undeniable threats.  Climate change is having negative effects on coral populations via at least three mechanisms.