Another Blow for the Future of Corals

Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by adrianN on Friday September 06, 2019 @12:36AM (#20893109)

The reefs are already lost. We've already emitted enough GHG to raise temperatures sufficiently to kill most of them and there are no signs that we'll stay below 2° of warming. At 2° all coral reefs will die.

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by mythrwy on Friday September 06, 2019 @10:58AM (#20896214)

Then how do we explain the huge number of fossil reefs in the geological record from times when temperatures were much warmer and C02 levels were around 10 times as high as they are today?

Besides if the temperature warms 2 degrees won't corals adapted to tropical waters colonize currently colder waters that are at that point perfectly suited?

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by mikestew on Friday September 06, 2019 @11:17AM (#20896391)

won't corals adapted to tropical waters colonize currently colder waters that are at that point perfectly suited?

What, they just call up American Vanlines to come pack their shit and move them 10 degrees north? No, temperature change will happen quickly enough that the coral will die before they migrate.

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by mythrwy on Friday September 06, 2019 @11:41AM (#20896628)

Corals produce polyps that are mobile early in life and wash all over. They won't have any trouble moving if temperatures change. In fact it's already been observed to happen.

https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110121/full/news.2011.33.ht...

Corals are not going to die out in 30 years, 50 years, probably not before humans die out. Corals have been around for a long time and are highly adaptable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Coral_Reef

For fun you can look at temps and C02 levels during Devonian period. No glaciers, much warmer than today. Very high C02 because carbon we are burning today had not been sequestered yet. Yet a coral reef was formed, a big one.

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by adrianN on Friday September 06, 2019 @12:10PM (#20896902)

You'd better call up the IPCC and tell them of your findings, because they believe that 99% of the coral will be dead in a 2° world with high confidence. Currently our emissions are on a path for much stronger warming that even that.

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by mythrwy on Friday September 06, 2019 @12:16PM (#20896950)

Appeal to authority isn't really an argument though.

I've laid the fact I know of out, you are free to believe what you want.

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Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals by adrianN on Friday September 06, 2019 @03:03PM (#20898740)

I'm not an expert on coral reef ecology, and probably neither are you. Believing the scientists who are is the natural choice.

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