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Coral Reefs are as Good as Dead, so We Don’t have to Try Anymore?

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rangerrebew:
Coral Reefs are as Good as Dead, so We Don’t have to Try Anymore?
18 hours ago 
Essay by Eric Worrall

But, but, there is still hope if we restrict fishing, reduce runoff pollution, and immediately commit to reducing CO2 emissions.

The end of coral reefs as we know them

Years ago, scientists made a devastating prediction about the ocean. Now it’s unfolding.

By Benji Jones@BenjiSJones  Apr 26, 2024, 7:15am EDT

More than five years ago, the world’s top climate scientists made a frightening prediction: If the planet warms by 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to preindustrial times, 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs globally would die off. At 2°C, that number jumps to more than 99 percent.
 
In not so great news, the planet is now approaching that 1.5°C mark. In 2023, the hottest year ever measured, the average global temperature was 1.52°C above the preindustrial average, as my colleague Umair Irfan reported. That doesn’t mean Earth has officially blown past this important threshold — typically, scientists measure these sorts of averages over decades, not years — but it’s a sign that we’re getting close.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/04/29/claim-coral-reefs-are-as-good-as-dead-so-we-dont-have-to-try-anymore/

Smokin Joe:
This was predicted decades ago when a species of starfish was devastating coral. If the niche is present, the coral will flourish and spread. If not, the extent diminishes. Not new, but a multitude of factors may come into play. You would think the rising sea level bandied about would mitigate the alleged temperature change.

DefiantMassRINO:
Tropical corals get all the press, but, there are also deep water corals ...

https://apps-nefsc.fisheries.noaa.gov/nefsc/ecosystem-ecology/corals.html
Ecology of the Northeast US Continental Shelf

Deep Corals
Deep corals are living members of some benthic communities, but are also structural elements. There are no known coral reefs in northeastern U.S. waters. However, various growth forms of coral do afford some spatial complexity to habitat spaces in the region in both shallow and deep water. Corals are not unique in this regard; sponges, hydroids, anemones (solitary and colonial, fixed and burrowing), oysters, mussels, jingle shells, and tube-building worms and amphipods serve similar functions in habitats where they occur, often defining the character of the benthic community and providing cover for resident and transient fishes. Deep corals are suspension feeders, but unlike most tropical and subtropical corals, do not require sunlight and do not have symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) to meet their energy needs. Deep corals can be found from near the surface to 6000 m depth, but most commonly occur between 50-1000 m on hard substrate, hence their “deep-sea” appellation. ...

Kamaji:
What bullshit.  There were coral reefs during the Miocene and Pliocene, when the global mean temperature was higher than now, and in the Miocene, when co2 concentrations were higher too.

Smokin Joe:

--- Quote from: Kamaji on April 30, 2024, 03:33:49 pm ---What bullshit.  There were coral reefs during the Miocene and Pliocene, when the global mean temperature was higher than now, and in the Miocene, when co2 concentrations were higher too.

--- End quote ---
You haven't even mentioned the benthic bioherms of the Paleozoic...

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