A coral crisis in synergy
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
That’s it. We can’t ignore this any longer. Coral reefs are in big, serious trouble. Not the sort of trouble that might spoil a few nice dive sites. This is the sort of trouble that could spell the end of all the world’s reefs within the next century. Yes, it could mean no more reefs.
So be warned. This is an unapologetically dismal post.
But please don’t take my word for it. I urge you to find half an hour to watch Professor Charlie Veron, veteran coral reef scientist, give a lecture on the past and future of the world’s coral reefs. Is the Barrier Reef on Death Row?
Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row? ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/Marine Photobank
J.E.N. Veron, known as Charlie, is undoubtedly the world’s most well-respected coral taxonomist and biogeographer. His three-volume Corals of the World sits behind me, reminding me of the days I’ve spent conducting underwater coral surveys.
But lately he has become increasingly worried that those books could become history books. Now he spends his time researching and lecturing about the future of coral reefs. In particular ocean acidification, the ‘great big gorilla in the cupboard that is waiting for us’ as he put it.
Dead coral and live starfish. Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
In his lecture Veron tells us about how reef extinction has happened before. Five times in fact. Each time, corals under various guises were hit hard, but each time reefs reinvented themselves and came back.
So why is this 6th extinction any different? I actually think he nails that question most eloquently in his recent paper The coral reef crisis.
Here, Veron and his co-authors succinctly explain that the rate of current (and near future) climate change is way faster than it ever has been in the past. This leaves little hope that corals will be able to adapt their way out of trouble. Even if they could, like they have in past, it would take thousands to millions of years for them to recover: that’s hardly relevant on a human time scale.
‘The difference is that this time humanity will have been the cause and also one of the species to suffer,’ they write.
Synergism
In both his lecture and paper, Veron explains the critical importance of multiple threats. Reefs today face a scrimmage of problems, not just rising sea levels, but rising acidification, rising temperatures triggering mass coral bleaching events, overfishing, poor water quality and bigger, more frequent storms (watch his lecture for more details on all of these).
Scientists have – until now – mostly studied how reefs deal with each of these issues in turn. But what happens when they all come along together?
Synergism. The combined effect will almost certainly be greater than the sum of the separate effects.
Bleached and healthy coral. (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
It’s an idea I wrote about in my masters thesis nearly a decade ago. Back then, there were hardly any studies focussing on how different stresses launch a combined assault on reefs. Now it’s something that people are having to think about more and more.
time to give up on reefs?
Veron doesn’t shirk his responsibility of delivering some really bad news. He outlines a series of increasingly spine-chilling scenarios. As CO2 levels ramp up from the current 387 ppm (parts per million in the atmsophere), first to 400, then 500 and 600, reefs will crumble and disappear.
By the time we reach 600 there won’t be any reefs left. And that could happen within 100 years.
Telling the story through the eyes of a moray eel he met on a recent dive on the Great Barrier Reef did little to take the edge off his apocalyptic message.
Unless we deal with carbon emissions, reefs are on their way out.
‘We must approach this as reality, not as a fairy tale’ Veron entreats.
That’s a message that has to get through at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December. If we could somehow manage to keep CO2 levels below 350 ppm, there is a chance reefs will survive.
So, please. Go make yourself a cup of tea and watch Charlie’s talk. And join the campain to save the world’s coral reefs. And when December comes round, you might like to listen in to what’s going on in Copenhagen.
Because this really matters.
p.s. why coral reefs matter
You may already know this, but just in case here are a few of the many reasons why reefs matter:
- They cover just 0.2% of the world’s marine environment and yet are home to around one third of all marine species.
- Approximately 500 million people live within 100km of a coral reef, many of them relying on reefs for food and income.
- Intact reefs protect coastlines.
- Reefs globally generate something like 170-375 billion dollars of income every year, in terms of food, tourism etc. That’s really just a good guess, and doesn’t count all the services that reefs provide that we can’t imagine replacing.
In detail
- The lecture: Charlie Veron gave this talk in July this year at the Royal Society, introduced by Sir David Attenborough.
- The paper: The coral reef crisis: The critical importance of <350 ppm CO2
That’s it. We can’t ignore this any longer. Coral reefs are in big, serious trouble. Not the sort of trouble that might spoil a few nice dive sites. This is the sort of trouble that could spell the end of all the world’s reefs within the next century. Yes, it could mean no more reefs.
So be warned. This is an unapologetically dismal post.
But please don’t take my word for it. I urge you to find half an hour to watch Professor Charlie Veron, veteran coral reef scientist, give a lecture on the past and future of the world’s coral reefs. Is the Barrier Reef on Death Row?
Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row? ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/Marine Photobank
J.E.N. Veron, known as Charlie, is undoubtedly the world’s most well-respected coral taxonomist and biogeographer. His three-volume Corals of the World sits behind me, reminding me of the days I’ve spent conducting underwater coral surveys.
But lately he has become increasingly worried that those books could become history books. Now he spends his time researching and lecturing about the future of coral reefs. In particular ocean acidification, the ‘great big gorilla in the cupboard that is waiting for us’ as he put it.
Dead coral and live starfish. Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
In his lecture Veron tells us about how reef extinction has happened before. Five times in fact. Each time, corals under various guises were hit hard, but each time reefs reinvented themselves and came back.
So why is this 6th extinction any different? I actually think he nails that question most eloquently in his recent paper The coral reef crisis.
Here, Veron and his co-authors succinctly explain that the rate of current (and near future) climate change is way faster than it ever has been in the past. This leaves little hope that corals will be able to adapt their way out of trouble. Even if they could, like they have in past, it would take thousands to millions of years for them to recover: that’s hardly relevant on a human time scale.
‘The difference is that this time humanity will have been the cause and also one of the species to suffer,’ they write.
Synergism
In both his lecture and paper, Veron explains the critical importance of multiple threats. Reefs today face a scrimmage of problems, not just rising sea levels, but rising acidification, rising temperatures triggering mass coral bleaching events, overfishing, poor water quality and bigger, more frequent storms (watch his lecture for more details on all of these).
Scientists have – until now – mostly studied how reefs deal with each of these issues in turn. But what happens when they all come along together?
Synergism. The combined effect will almost certainly be greater than the sum of the separate effects.
Bleached and healthy coral. (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
It’s an idea I wrote about in my masters thesis nearly a decade ago. Back then, there were hardly any studies focussing on how different stresses launch a combined assault on reefs. Now it’s something that people are having to think about more and more.
time to give up on reefs?
Veron doesn’t shirk his responsibility of delivering some really bad news. He outlines a series of increasingly spine-chilling scenarios. As CO2 levels ramp up from the current 387 ppm (parts per million in the atmsophere), first to 400, then 500 and 600, reefs will crumble and disappear.
By the time we reach 600 there won’t be any reefs left. And that could happen within 100 years.
Telling the story through the eyes of a moray eel he met on a recent dive on the Great Barrier Reef did little to take the edge off his apocalyptic message.
Unless we deal with carbon emissions, reefs are on their way out.
‘We must approach this as reality, not as a fairy tale’ Veron entreats.
That’s a message that has to get through at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December. If we could somehow manage to keep CO2 levels below 350 ppm, there is a chance reefs will survive.
So, please. Go make yourself a cup of tea and watch Charlie’s talk. And join the campain to save the world’s coral reefs. And when December comes round, you might like to listen in to what’s going on in Copenhagen.
Because this really matters.
p.s. why coral reefs matter
You may already know this, but just in case here are a few of the many reasons why reefs matter:
- They cover just 0.2% of the world’s marine environment and yet are home to around one third of all marine species.
- Approximately 500 million people live within 100km of a coral reef, many of them relying on reefs for food and income.
- Intact reefs protect coastlines.
- Reefs globally generate something like 170-375 billion dollars of income every year, in terms of food, tourism etc. That’s really just a good guess, and doesn’t count all the services that reefs provide that we can’t imagine replacing.
In detail
- The lecture: Charlie Veron gave this talk in July this year at the Royal Society, introduced by Sir David Attenborough.
- The paper: The coral reef crisis: The critical importance of <350 ppm CO2