New Study Shows that Florida’s Reefs Cannot Endure a ‘Cold Snap’
Scientists detail unprecedented loss of coral reef species during 2010 cold weather event
Miami — August 26, 2011 — Remember frozen iguanas falling from trees during Florida’s 2010 record-breaking cold snap? Well, a new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science shows that Florida’s corals also dropped in numbers due to the cold conditions.
“It was a major setback,” said Diego Lirman, associate professor at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. “Centuries-old coral colonies were lost in a matter of days.”
The chilly January temperatures caused the most catastrophic loss of corals within the Florida Reef Tract, which spans 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Miami to the Dry Tortugas and is the only living barrier reef in the continental U.S.
Members of the Florida Reef Resilience Program, a group comprised of Florida scientists and resource managers, conducted a month-long survey of 76 reefs sites from Martin County to Key West, both during and shortly after the unusually cold weather.
The research team compared the mortality rates of corals from the cold event to warm-water events, such as the highly publicized bleaching event in 2005, and concluded that the cold-water event cause even more widespread morality than previous warm-water events. The results were published in the August 2011 issue of the journal PLoS One.
The study found coral tissue mortality reached over 40-percent for several important reef-building species and that large colonies in shallow and near-shore reefs were hardest hit. This is in contrast to a less than one-percent tissue mortality caused by warm-water events since 2005. Coral species that had previously proven tolerant to higher-than-normal ocean temperatures were most affected by the cold-water event.
“This was undoubtedly the single worst event on record for Florida corals,” said Lirman.
Ice-cold Arctic air swept into Florida in early January 2010, plummeting air temperatures to an all-time low of 30°F (1°C) and dropping ocean temperatures to a chilly 51°F (11°C).
“The 2010 cold-water anomaly not only caused widespread coral mortality but also reversed prior resistance and resilience patterns that will take decades to recover,” the study’s authors conclude.
Florida’s reefs are located in a marginal environment at the northernmost limit for coral development. Corals have adapted to a specific temperature range and are typically not found in areas where water temperatures drop below 60°F (16°C).
Changes in climate patterns as well as others impacts, such as coastal development, pollution, overfishing and disease have put added stress on coral reefs worldwide. The authors cite the need to improve ecosystem resilience through reef restoration, pollution reduction efforts and the use of management tools, such as marine protected areas, in order for coral reefs to survive future large-scale disturbances.
“We can’t protect corals from such an extreme event but we can mitigate other stresses to help them recover,” said Lirman.
The paper, titled “Severe 2010 Cold-Water Event Caused Unprecedented Mortality to Corals of the Florida Reef Tract and Reversed Previous Survivorship Patterns,” was supported by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the ARRA program.
About the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School
The University of Miami’s mission is to educate and nurture students, to create knowledge, and to provide service to our community and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of the diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders of our nation and the world. Founded in the 1940’s, the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has grown into one of the world’s premier marine and atmospheric research institutions. Offering dynamic interdisciplinary academics, the Rosenstiel School is dedicated to helping communities to better understand the planet, participating in the establishment of environmental policies, and aiding in the improvement of society and quality of life. For more information, please visit www.rsmas.miami.edu.
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“We can’t protect corals from such an extreme event but we can mitigate other stresses to help them recover,”
If only there were a way that humans could somehow warm up the planet we could save these coral and many more from needless devastation.
And if any one of the researchers expected the cold to be less harmful than warm water needs their biologist title revoked. You have a tropical species living at the extreme of its range because the conditions are already a bit cold. Corals can handle a temperature increase if the algae they have can handle it or get replaced by a species that can, however cold kills everything.
The one typo of “morality” caused by a cold water event is actually appropriate.
Cold is the enemy. Cold is bad. Corals and ALL living creatures prefer warm to cold. Corals exist where they do because of a lack of cold. Florida is on the extreme edge of the coral zone because it occasionally gets cold. Since I live in a winter climate, I know cold…
Why is this news to anyone? Why is it that when it comes to “climate science”, every discovery is amazing and new, when most of it has been known for centuries? If I was more cynical, I’d say it’s because people who know nothing are always finding out new things…
http://tinyurl.com/7ejzk
Cold and ice are anti-life. Man has retreated from it’s onslaught since our misty and mythical beginnings. Cold has always brought disease and plague. Warmth gives life and health.
It is only very recently, that Man has reversed natural perceptions. This is a profound anomaly and speaks directly to the current disconnect between Man and Nature (reality).
It is not just Corals, who will fail to thrive, should significant cooling occur. Warming is a pleasant walk in the park. GK
“The 2010 cold-water anomaly not only caused widespread coral mortality but also reversed prior resistance and resilience patterns that will take decades to recover,” the study’s authors conclude.
Oh, get over it. Nobody died.
Climate Change is still killing the corals!
“Changes in climate patterns as well as others impacts, such as coastal development, pollution, overfishing and disease have put added stress on coral reefs worldwide. ”
Gotta give a nod to the AGW gods even when one writes about cold killing corals. Completely perverse rituals of not very intelligent scientists.
Pansy-ass corals should develop a better strategy or they won’t last a million years. What? They are of the oldest organisms on the planet? Well then they better learn how to support multiple species of algae to support wider variety of conditions. They do that now? Just not at the same time? Bingo…
Why don’t we “help” the corals by replacing the algae they live on? Or having them live on a mix, and whatever thrives under present conditions will thrive. This single-algae scheme is too vulnerable.
It’s obvious that AGW is causing the cold. Just do the math. 2 + 2 = 5?
Um, this is the way of nature. There’s nothing magical about the pre-cold snap ecosystem, and threre’s no reason to lament the decline of a “politically correct” species. If water conditions remain favorable, the corals will return. If not, a new ecosystem will develop, one that’s no more or less magical than its predecessor. Get over it, folks.
The warmists see the writing on the wall, this we are going to cook thing is unraveling, so they are starting to realign themselves to coldists, send money.
“It was a major setback,” said Diego Lirman, associate professor at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. “Centuries-old coral colonies were lost in a matter of days.”
It was neither a ‘major setback’ nor a ‘major opportunity’. It is just nature responding to natural and continually changing weather. Setting the anthropogenic emotionalism aside, it is simply natural selection, expressed as ‘Survival Of The Fittest’. Think of this as Evolution In Action…..
It “must” be “carbon’s” fault. After all, what else could it be? I’m at least 95% sure of it. Or, perhaps it’s aliens, but the liklihood of it being them drops to 65%. The science is very clear on this – just look at the “literature”.
“Extreme events” will cause extreme results to corals which live on the extreme edges of their survival range.
And speaking of “extreme weather events,” make sure that any Hurricane Irene AGW alarmists are told of 259 “Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1996” listed at the National Hurricane Center. Not to mention the additional 207 “Cyclones that may have 25+ deaths” also listed there.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdeadlyapp1.shtml
Didn’t Darwin has a theory about this sort of thing ?
This study probably killed off more AGW grants and dollars than any cold snap. The corals may recover but the biased climate science has been harmed for far longer.
For the same reason the orange groves are moving further south….
….it’s getting colder you dummies
“Pristine” coral reefs has been the biggest money makers for these guys for over a decade…….
“unprecedented”… does that mean it’s worse than we thought?
It’s still all my fault. And yours. Just ask the faithful at RC- they’ll have the ‘correct” spin on this in no time.
The inshore fish died at alarming rates in winter 2010 …
Well, there’s no wonder why the norse dudes thought hell was a cold place and not some so so luke warm place.
These corals are obviously faking it. Why can’t they get a job and quit sucking of the fat of the land. Lazy beggars.
😉
I do not have to go further than my collection of old National Geograpics to pull up the report on our seas, death of corals corelates to periods of sea cooling. Wow, its amazing what we have learnt since the late 70`s, I must learn to stop reading,
Random comments.
1. A perfectly reasonable study. Something sets the poleward limits on shallow water tropical reef corals. We’ve made a step toward confirming that it is cold water temperatures that sets the limit.
2. Presumably one of the signs of global warming would be shallow water coral reefs expanding poleward. Probably not happening. We’d surely notice and Joe Romm would be explaining how that means we are all gonna die.
3. There are several thousand genera of corals. Not all are warm water, reef formers, or shallow water. There are, for example, extensive deep water coral reefs off the coast of Ireland
4. Corals are not the oldest multicellular lifeform, but they’ve been around a long time. Sponges and colonial protozoa almost certainly predate corals. IIRC, the oldest “known” corals are Lower Cambrian — a bit more than 500,000.000 years old. But it’s sometimes hard to recognize what phylum fossils of critters from that era belong to. By the Middle Ordovician, creatures that anybody can recognize as a coral were forming reefs.
5. The idea that ocean acidification is going to kill off corals is surely blatant nonsense. Corals didn’t make it through half a billion years by going belly up at the first environmental problem. Acidification might kill of a few genera, but even that strikes me as having a higher climate-crap quotient than science really should have.
Sounds to me like some GM scientist needs to get cracking and develop a strain of coral able to withstand colder climates.
That should fix it. Then we could grow coral anywhere.