In recognition of the International Year of the Reef, this year SeaSpan will feature special commentaries on IYOR and coral reefs
- SeaSpan--Marine Conservation News from the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, May A, 2008, volume 1-30
Special Commentary: 2008 the International Year of the Reef
Tim McClanahan, Ph.D., Senior Conservation Zoologist, Wildlife Conservation Society, KenyaIYOR: What a difference a decade makes
We live in interesting times when reassuring philosophies uneasily confront amassing scientific data. Ice core data that now span the Earth’s last million years are a case in point. Climate proxies from ice cores indicate that human civilization is a product of a recent stable and warm period, but our climate is more the exception than rule in the Earth’s unruly history. The high resolution and certainty of the climate proxies is another uneasy reminder that nature is an inattentive child, switching focus and leaving a mess. The last abrupt shift from a cool glacial period, the younger Drays, to the current warmer climate is clearly described in ice cores as a one-decade transition around 11,500 BP. Temperatures rose ~15oF in Greenland and this led to massive shifts in the ranges of most species and some species extinctions.
When I think of changes in the reef ecosystems, science, and policy since the first International Year of the Reef in 1997, the younger Drays is not far from my thoughts. 1997 was a heady time for me as I had monitored a number of Kenyan reefs and parks for a decade, recently won the Pew Fellows award, and organized a meeting and edited book that led to the first ocean-basin view of the Indian Ocean. What a reassuring view of scientific progress this book was when comparing our collective findings with pages from the descriptive studies of early 1970s. Scientists were working in every nation, not just visiting on expeditions, and producing fine detailed descriptions of the fauna, but also good environmental and management relationships, and even insightful experiments and models. True evidence for progress, at least to my naïve mind.
The next year, 1998, was certainly the most depressing year of my career as I watched these well-described reefs blanch and topple from the one-two punch of the century’s warmest El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole. What was the point of conservation science when nature’s wicked uppercut could topple our best plans in such a fickle blow? I spent the next few years working through the depression by adopting corals from tough environments and moving them to better homes in marine parks and predicting they would be more tolerant of the fickle environments of the future. Depression waned with the hard work but the ungrateful denizens we love and swear to protect, parrotfish and triggerfish, largely ate these tough-love corals. Clearly, all species did no share our concern and models of nature. Our conservation science hypotheses needed re-drafting along with our research and work priorities.
Emerging from the carbonate dust and the collective work was the recognition that not all reefs suffered the same and some recovered fast, less from our own management than the natural heterogeneity of species and space. Tough-love and tolerance had produced some diverse communities that were not just the renegades of the last days, but members of the most diverse and iconic coral reef neighborhoods. A new center of biodiversity, from southern Kenya to northern Madagascar, arose from the efforts of coral reef scientists. These reefs might have what it takes to get through the tough times ahead and what was most needed was some plan to insure the future of these reefs. Reducing human disturbances in these reefs might have the largest pay offs and give us time to address the harder issues of reducing carbon emissions and human populations. This unlearning and learning has taken another decade, a decade of tough times that characterize the Earth, but what a useful decade.
- SeaSpan--Marine Conservation News from the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, January 2008, Volume 13-1 features a special commentary from Marea E. Hatziolos on The International Year of the Reef
Special Commentary: 2008 The International Year of the Reef
Marea E. Hatziolos, Senior Coastal and Marine Specialist, Environment Department
The World Bank Group / Pew Fellows AdvisorMore than a decade after the first International Year of the Reef was declared to call attention to the plight of the world’s reefs, the situation today is more dire. The threats from over-fishing, pollution and coastal development, fueled by increasing population pressure and trade in the goods and services provided by reefs, continue to take a heavy toll. This, despite significant investments by the international community (upwards of $700million since 1997) and many local initiatives to protect reef resources. A major factor which has offset some of the gains realized through local action, such as establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) to relieve fishing pressure and encourage local recruitment of corals and fish, is climate change. Superimposed on local human stressors, climate change acts synergistically with factors driving a decline of coral cover in favor of algal growth and reduced resilience inhibiting recovery. Although the massive coral bleaching events of 1997-1998 in which 16% of the world’s coral reefs suffered mortality was a wake up call to scientists, resulting in the first IYOR, a full appreciation of the impacts of Climate Change on the future of coral reefs is only now emerging.
Coral bleaching, the most visible manifestation of corals’ response to rapidly warming sea surface temperatures, is only part of the story. Ocean acidification, or the decrease in the ocean’s pH as a result of increasing atmospheric CO2 , which interacts with seawater to reduce carbonate ion concentrations and the ability of calcareous organisms to calcify, may be a far more deadly outcome for reefs of human induced surges in atmospheric CO2. Add to this mix coral disease and hurricanes, predicted to increase with climate change, and it is easy to see how this combination of factors could push reefs over the edge.
The recent paper in Science (December 14, 2007), “Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification,” underscores this dual threat to reefs and the inescapable consequences for coral reefs and human communities if we fail to act.
The paper, featured on the cover of Science magazine's December 14th issue (see SeaSpan December), was an invited review of climate change impacts to coral reefs. It is a product of the scientific Synthesis Panel of the GEF/World Bank CRTR (Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management) Program. This review summarizes what we have learned about climate change and its impacts on coral reefs over the past decade, focusing specifically on global warming and ocean acidification. It suggests that atmospheric CO2 concentrations exceeding 450 ppm will result in coral reef deterioration toward non-coral communities, with concentrations exceeding 500 ppm resulting in the collapse of coral reefs as we know them. The paper presents three possible scenarios of reef structure (and function) at different CO2 concentrations, with associated changes in ocean acidity and calcification rates. A tipping point is indicated near 450 ppm atmospheric CO2, beyond which reefs begin to erode faster than they can calcify. This has devastating impacts for coastal populations and economies dependent on these ecosystem services (estimated by UNEP at $350 Billion/yr). The policy and management actions required to prevent this collapse are well known and include immediate reductions in CO2 emissions to stabilize concentrations of CO2 below 450 ppm; and reducing local human pressure on reefs from rampant coastal development (including tourism), over-fishing and pollution. Mangement interventions such as coastal zoning, wastewater treatment, Marine Protected Areas, enforced fisheries regulations, protection of important algal grazers on the reef, and co-management or power-sharing arrangements with local communities have proven effective in restoring productivity of damaged reefs. These need to be scaled up and replicated widely to buy time for reefs while CO2 emissions are brought down to "sustainable" levels.
IYOR 2008 (http://www.iyor.org) comes at a crucial time, on the heels of the Bali conference in which governments agreed to negotiate a plan for reducing CO2 emissions to avert the worst consequences of climate change. With billions of dollars being mobilized by the international donor community for investments in clean energy, low carbon economic growth and carbon sequestration —and parallel investments to help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change already entrained, we have a unique opportunity to act. The IYOR can be a catalyst for action to conserve reefs--by focusing global attention on coral reefs as a symbol of the vulnerability of the earth’s biosphere --and by laying out a menu of actions at the international and local levels to stave off the demise of coral reefs, and loss of the most diverse forms of life on the planet.
To read or search past issues of SeaSpan, go to: http://listserv.miami.edu/archives/seaspan.html
Source: SeaSpan, from the Pew Institute for Ocean Science
http://www.pewoceanscience.org/
