There’s Another Thing Killing The Coral Reefs, And We Can Actually Fix This Problem
CARLY CASSELLA
17 JUL 2019
Coral reefs are one of the most threatened ecosystems on our planet, and in the past two decades alone, half of the coral in Florida has died off completely. Global warming is known to be a deadly factor, but rising ocean temperatures are only part of the story.
Thirty years of research in the Looe Key Sanctuary Preservation Area (LKSPA) on the southern tip of the Florida Keys has now revealed the cost of a devastating threat to coral that rivals even climate change: direct human pollution.
For years, agricultural run-off and improperly treated sewage have flowed into Florida’s ocean waters from the northern Everglades, elevating the sanctuary’s nitrogen levels and lowering the reef’s temperature threshold for bleaching, researchers say.
As a result of this deadly combination, coral cover in the region has declined from nearly 33 percent in 1984 to less than 6 percent in 2008.
In their analysis, the authors found that three mass bleaching events that occurred during these years only happened after heavy rainfall and increased land-based runoffs. In other words, if we can reduce the amount of local pollution that makes its way into our oceans, we might be able to reduce the worst of the damage.
“Citing climate change as the exclusive cause of coral reef demise worldwide misses the critical point that water quality plays a role, too,” says ecologist James Porter from the University of Georgia.
“While there is little that communities living near coral reefs can do to stop global warming, there is a lot they can do to reduce nitrogen runoff. Our study shows that the fight to preserve coral reefs requires local, not just global, action.”
(Klein & Orlando, Bulletin of Marine Science, 1994)
Elevated nitrogen levels are known to cause corals metabolic stress, increasing their susceptibility to disease and boosting algal blooms that reduce light and accelerate coral reef decline. Nevertheless, scientists are still not sure how these changes relate to the growing problem of mass coral bleaching, disease, and mortality.
Previous studies have shown that between 1992 and 1996 – when Florida’s freshwater flows were directed south against scientific advice – there was a 404 percent increase in coral diseases throughout the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), which, like the LKSPA, also sits downstream from the Everglades.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Years ago I was in Ensenada, Mexico. And before that Jamaica. I was shocked at the sheer number of open sewer and rain water runoff ditches going right into the ocean. The smell was horrendous and the ditch areas covered in slimy mold. Locals walked about as if nothing was amiss. It was so disgusting I have not been back there since.
The main thing killing coral reefs is dynamite. Literally.
Blast fishing is blowing reefs apart in several countries’ littorals. I suspect the practice is more widespread and more damaging than is typically reported, since that is a story not so convenient to the climateers.
Just you wait, “for every action, there is a reaction, and a corals reaction is quite a f’n thing”.
Stolen from the movie Snatch.
Saw a documentary on Cuba’s reefs and they mentioned that the coral shows signs that it started getting much healthier in’92 when the USSR collapsed and hence the factory farms were forced to shut down. Might be one factor for sure.
Friends of the coral unless you’ve overfished them in the past for their collectable shells as spiny coral predator becomes another COT case-
These articles about Coral are ridiculous – Climate change is not the problem other wise it would effect coral in the following areas-
Where coral is Protected- 5% – Coral is in good condition.
Where man does not go – Bikini Atoll- Coral is in pristine condition and growing like a forest..
Where pesticides and fertilisers are not used- Cuba- Coral is in pristine condition and growing like a forest.
There are other reasons, flagged up above, Dynamite, but also drag nets, use in building- now stopped in the Maldives, fish- Species are now spreading across the world- Take Lionfish- “Native to the Indo-Pacific oceanic region, lionfish are quickly spreading throughout the coasts and coral reefs of the East Coast of the United States” Lionfish devastate coral reefs”
and on and on and on.
The concept of “local” needs to expanded in many people’s minds.
In an ideal world we would have developed nuclear power to the point where it globally supplies so much ultra-cheap energy that we can all afford to take the expensive industrial options that reduce local pollution.That is one of the great things that wealth does for us.
Currently, that ‘pollution’ expense is just off-shored to China et al. Net result is that genuinely polluting industries simply move out of town and ill-educated greens get to think they have done something useful for the world and so scream even louder at their next protest. In reality they have probably achieved less than nothing.