Sunday, April 10, 2016

Climate Change and dying coral reefs: World sticks collective head in sand


According to Justin Marshall, director of CoralWatch at Australia's University of Queensland.



Climate-Related Death of Coral Around World Alarms Scientists.  (The New York Times, 4/9/2016)
Time to wake up.  Coral reefs are the crucial incubators of the ocean’s ecosystem, providing food and shelter to a quarter of all marine species, and they support fish stocks that feed more than one billion people. They are made up of millions of tiny animals, called polyps, that form symbiotic relationships with algae, which in turn capture sunlight and carbon dioxide to make sugars that feed the polyps. 
An estimated 30 million small-scale fishermen and women depend on reefs for their livelihoods, more than one million in the Philippines alone. In Indonesia, fish supported by the reefs provide the primary source of protein.

 Not what scientists are finding today.



Other climate change posts: 
Climate change, rising sea level threaten Kennedy Space Center launch site.  (4/6/2016)
Cold enough for you?  (3/9/2014)

No comments: