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Guest post by David ArchibaldWillis Eschenbach’s post on lab work on coral response to elevated carbon dioxide levels, and The Reef Abides, leads to a large scale, natural experiment in Papua New Guinea. There are several places at the eastern end of that country where carbon dioxide is continuously bubbling up through healthy looking coral reef, with fish swimming around and all that that implies.Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it (photo: Bob Halstead)What that implies is that ocean acidification is no threat at all. If the most delicate, fragile, iconic ecosystem of them all can...

Enlarge Image Green plague. In Fiji, rarely fished reefs (top) abound with colorful corals, but seaweeds start their invasions in exploited locales (bottom) Credit: E. Hunter Hay (top); I. P. Markham (bottom) "Attack of the killer seaweed" may sound like a cheesy horror flick, but for many coral species, murderous multicellular algae have become real-life villains. A new study of reefs in the South Pacific suggests that some algae can poison coral on contact. This chemical warfare may be increasing the pressure on struggling reef communities worldwide, researchers say. Along the reefs dotting Fiji, overfishing has pitted corals against...

January's big chill led to widespread death of corals in many near shore and mid-channel reefs from Biscayne Bay to Summerland Key, but most of the popular offshore diving and fishing reefs in the Florida Keys were spared. A survey conducted at 78 sites throughout the Florida Reef tract from Martin County to the Keys also found that corals fared well north of Miami and in the Lower Keys west to the Dry Tortugas. Analysis of the data collected by 31 scientists from 13 organizations has not been completed to determine the amount of coral damage throughout the island chain....

Marine scientists say they are astonished at the spectacular recovery of certain coral reefs in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from a devastating coral bleaching event in 2006. That year high sea temperatures caused massive and severe coral bleaching in the Keppel Islands, in the southern part of the GBR. The damaged reefs were quickly smothered by a single species of seaweed – an event that can spell the total loss of the corals. However, a lucky combination of rare circumstances meant the reefs were able to achieve a spectacular recovery, with abundant corals re-established in a single year,...

Age estimate places coral among the most long-lived species on the planet.Some species of coral can live for over 4,000 years — longer than any other animal that lives in the ocean, a study has found. Uncertainty over how to date coral makes estimates of their lifespan contentious. A radiocarbon-dating study published in 2006 by Brendan Roark, then at Stanford University in California, suggested that living colonies of Gerardia corals could be more than 2,700 years old1. But a 2002 study by Richard Grigg at the University of Hawaii had estimated the life span of the same species to be...

The jury is still out on whether Dubai’s offshore reclamation projects are a sound ecological addition to the Gulf, say world experts studying new artificial reefs at the mega-billion dollar developments. However, in interviews on Tuesday near the trunk of the Jebel Ali Palm, marine scientists said early data is promising - new coral is growing on the windward outer reaches of breakwaters erected around Nakheel’s Palm Trilogy and The World. The comments from experts with the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) came as a two-day coastal monitoring workshop wrapped up in Dubai. United...

PARIS (AFP) - Sun screen lotions used by beach-going tourists worldwide are a major cause of coral bleaching, according to a new study commissioned by the European Commission. In experiments, the cream-based ultra-violet (UV) filters -- used to protect skin from the harmful effects of sun exposure -- caused bleaching of coral reefs even in small quantities, the study found. Coral reefs are among the most biologically productive and diverse of ecosystems, and directly sustain half a billion people. But some 60 percent of these reef systems are threatened by a deadly combination of climate change, industrial pollution and excess...

Japan to plant coral island in the Pacific By Julian Ryall in Tokyo Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/04/2008 Japanese scientists will attempt to "grow" an island in the Pacific Ocean to maintain its fishing territory. Up to 50,000 shards of coral will be transplanted into the waters around Okinotorishima, two stone outcrops 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, in an effort to stop them sinking. The outcrops sit just 4in above water at high tide. If they disappear, Japan's maritime territory will shrink dramatically. addition, rights to oil, minerals and gas beneath the seabed could be lost. However, the £3.6 million...

Several hundred years ago, the coral reefs of the Caribbean had up to six times more fish than they have today, according to a study published Wednesday. The estimate is made by US scientists poring over the fate of the Caribbean monk seal, a fish-loving mammal driven to extinction in 1952. Historical records from the 17th and 18th century show there were huge numbers of monk seals, distributed among 13 colonies across the Caribbean. They were so plentiful that some ships' maps of the West Indies even noted particularly dense locations of seals. Alas for Monachus tropicalis, colonisation of the...

How Did One Small Man Move 1,100 Tons of Stone to Build a Marvel of Engineering? Like the ancient wonders of Stonehenge or the Great Pyramids of Egypt, there is an incredible and mysterious creation right here in the United States. Coral Castle, in Homestead, Fla., just south of Miami, is an intricate rock garden made of enormous pieces of coral, many of them weighing several tons. But more amazingly, Coral Castle was built entirely by one man  Latvian immigrant Ed Leedskalnin, who stood just 5 feet tall and weighed 100 pounds. To this day, no one knows how...

The Clintons have long kept hidden the identities of the donors to their foundation, and now we know why. The New York Times finally got a look at the books, and they discovered millions of dollars coming from people with a lot to lose during the Clinton administration. Shockingly, the pace of donations has accelerated as Hillary comes closer to winning the Democratic presidential nomination: But an examination of the foundation demonstrates how its fund-raising has at times fostered the potential for conflict.The New York Times has compiled the first comprehensive list of 97 donors who gave or pledged a...

The journal Science has published a paper that is the most comprehensive review to date of the effects rising ocean temperatures are having on the world's coral reefs. The Carbon Crisis: Coral Reefs under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification, co-authored by seventeen marine scientists from seven different countries, reveals that most coral reefs will not survive the drastic increases in global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 unless governments act immediately to combat current trends. The paper, the cover story for this week's issue of Science, paints a bleak picture of a future without all but the most resilient coral species...

Coral "shuffle" helps reefs survive warmer world: study SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef might be able to survive warming sea temperatures, as a result of global warming, better than first thought because some coral algae are more heat tolerant, Australian scientists said. Coral geneticists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science have found that many corals store several types of algae, which can improve their capacity to cope with warmer water. "This work shatters the popular view that only a small percentage of corals have the potential to respond to warmer conditions by shuffling live-in algal partners," said...

“For some reason, when you put people next to reefs, they die,” said microbiologist Forest Rohwer of San Diego State University at a recent symposium at the American Museum of Natural History here. A 2004 study found that 70 percent of the world’s reefs had been destroyed or were threatened

Coral reveals increased hurricanes may be the norm 18:00 06 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The recent increase in the number of major Atlantic hurricanes may just be a return to the norm after a period of unusually low storm frequency, say researchers. Johan Nyberg of the Geological Survey of Sweden and colleagues used marine sediment cores of coral samples from the northeast Caribbean to build a proxy record of wind shear and sea-surface temperatures since 1730, and from this they estimated hurricane activity since that time. High wind shear – the difference in speed and direction between...

Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies believe discoveries about the genetic complexity of coral could rewrite theories about evolution. After identifying about 10,000 genes, they believe coral could contain more genes than humans who posses about 20,000. Coral is considered to be a simple animal. However, Professor David Miller says its genetic complexity challenges the notion that life started out simple then evolved to become more sophisticated. "There's this intrinsic tendency to think about a slow accumulation of complexity and a slow accumulation of genes which have allowed an increased morphological complexity in higher animals...

The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs. . . . . . .Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lie exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass

I guess we could say that Arno Atoll is kind of loopy (click on image for BIG full-size):

KEY LARGO, Fla. — Marine scientists hope "test-tube coral babies" will take root to help restore a tract of reef ravaged by a 1984 ship grounding in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. A team of University of Miami marine science researchers is collecting coral eggs and sperm all this week during an annual reproductive ritual, dubbed coral spawning. Looking like an upside-down, underwater snowstorm, most corals in the Keys, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean release eggs and sperm into the water a few days after the full moon in August. In the wild, eggs and sperm randomly mix...

When death strikes a coral reef, whether from an oil spill off Mexico or sediment unleashed by a dam bursting in Hawaii, marine biologists at the scene know what to look for, but not how to report and preserve their findings so they will hold up in court. Not for long. Biologists and criminalists are joining forces to develop specific crime scene investigation techniques that work under water, where almost nothing that is standard procedure on land works. Call it "CSI: Coral Reef." "The coral reef is the body," said Ken Goddard, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...

March 13, 2006 Compound from Coral Could Combat Cancer Natural compounds have proven to be a treasure trove of medicinal properties. For example, the bark of the Pacific yew tree yielded a compound that has helped battle some forms of cancer. Such finds have led to a new industry--bioprospecting--and such prospectors have fanned out across the globe in search of nature's remedies. Now a compound isolated from coral collected off the coast of Okinawa has shown the ability to slow down and possibly prevent virus replication and it may hold promise as a cancer treatment. Isis hippuris is a yellow,...

Marine Organisms Threatened By Increasingly Acidic Ocean Corals and Plankton May Have Difficulty Making Shells Every day, the average person on the planet burns enough fossil fuel to emit 24 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, out of which about nine pounds is then taken up by the ocean. As this CO2 combines with seawater, it forms an acid in a process known as ocean acidification. A new study by an international team of oceanographers published in the September 29, 2005 issue of Nature reports that ocean acidification could result in corrosive chemical conditions much sooner than previously thought....

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - A natural coral bridge that spanned a cove along Aruba's west coast collapsed before dawn Friday, destroying one of the island's biggest tourist attractions. The bridge, the largest of its kind in the Caribbean, was 25 feet high and 100 feet long, said Tourism Minister Edison Briesen. The cause was not immediately known, he said. "It's a very sad day for Aruba and for its tourism," Briesen said. "A picture of the bridge appears in almost every promotional flier, and more tourists visit it than any other attraction." He stood among hundreds of Arubans who traveled along...

Researchers have found the world's northernmost underwater hot springs, spouting out of the seabed in the otherwise chilly waters of the Norwegian Sea. It's a veritable oasis featuring tropical-like coral and unusual plant life. The underwater hot springs were found at a depth of 600 meters on the so-called "Mohnsryggen" north of the Arctic island of Jan Mayen, where Norway maintains a weather station and military presence. Researchers made the discovery during an international expedition this summer. The researchers were assisted by techological equipment on board the research vessel GO Sars and the remote-controlled mini-submarine Bathysaurus. Their eyes widened when...

At a makeshift refuge camp in the capital Male, a teenager vows never to go back to his tiny coral island after Sunday's deadly tsunami lashed the equatorial nation, killing at least 55 people. Before the disaster struck, the Maldives were the picture-postcard tropical paradise many well-heeled people dreamed about, with coconut palms leaning over crystal-clear lagoons and coral reefs promising great snorkelling and diving. Now a state of emergency has been declared, throwing the classic desert islands into crisis after they were deluged by the freak waves that crippled large swathes of Asia. While the tourist industry has been...

The reason it's named Christmas Island is as one would expect: it was discovered on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors. Click for double size: And since this is Christmas Island, the posting would not be complete without a couple of pictures of its most famous annual event:

jdorschner@herald.com Hoping to snag a ticket to next week's presidential debate at the University of Miami? Don't count on it. Big-time campaign contributors and university trustees -- the kind of people who seldom have to scrounge for tickets to prime events -- find themselves frustrated and ticketless. Political junkies and just plain folk are similarly seatless. Thursday, September 23, 2004 (Herald.com)

Corals are adapting to the world's warming climate with a kind of living heat shield. Corals typically house symbiotic algae, which convert sunlight into food and paint reefs vivid colors. But in recent years, warming waters have triggered many corals to eject those algae, bleaching reefs white and often killing the coral in the process. Now some corals have found a way to survive current global warming trends. Andrew Baker of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York sampled corals before, during, and after the 1997-98 El Niño brought warm waters to the Pacific Ocean. He reports in the journal...

Sixty-two years ago today a major battle of WW2 began

Scientists agree that coral reefs are in an alarming global state of decline. However, determining the main cause or causes of this decline has proven a much more contentious issue. In the current edition of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (JEMBE), Harbor Branch marine scientist Dr.Brian Lapointe and colleagues present new evidence they hope will help settle one major debate: whether pollution or overfishing is the main cause of the coral-smothering spread of seaweed on many reefs. The research suggests that pollution from such sources as sewage and agricultural runoff is the main culprit, a conclusion that...

<p>An inspection of deeper-water Caribbean coral reefs found them healthier than previously believed, scientists said.</p> <p>A three-year survey of 20 coral reef areas in the western Atlantic found those in 20 feet (6 meters) to 65 feet (19.5 meters) of water had an average of 26 percent living coral cover.</p>

Coral Reef Task Force Backs Florida Coastal Cleanup WASHINGTON, DC, February 27, 2003 (ENS) - Today, in Washington, DC, the United States Coral Reef Task Force adopted a resolution that will improve water quality in the Florida Keys, while helping the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico upgrade ineffective wastewater treatment systems. Established in 1998, the Coral Reef Task Force includes the heads of 11 federal agencies and the governors of seven states, territories, and commonwealths. Their mission is to address the coral reef crisis and develop and implement coordinated efforts by mapping and monitoring U.S. coral reefs, conducting...

The coral bleaching observed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands over the past several weeks could be caused by global warming -- or it could just be a cycle in nature, scientists say. Either way, it offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the recovery of bleached coral reefs, said scientists who returned Tuesday from a monthlong research cruise to Hawaii's most remote islands. The researchers said they were surprised by the amount of bleached, or dying, coral they observed there, even though they had a clue they might find bleaching because of abnormally high water temperatures. Though the cause of the...