Best of our wild blogs: 14 Apr 12

Seagrassy at Chek Jawa with new wild piglets
from wild shores of singapore

After a Morning Rain @ Upper Peirce Reservoir
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

A family of Little Grebes
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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"No Shark Fins Singapore" campaign launched

Channel NewsAsia 13 Apr 12;

SINGAPORE: A "No Shark Fins Singapore" campaign has been launched at the Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) 2012.

It hopes to make Singapore shark fin-free by 2013 and is looking to convince all Chinese restaurants and companies to remove shark fins from their menus and corporate events respectively, and conduct active outreach programmes to primary and secondary schools.

Non-profit organisations that have shown their support for this ground-up shark conservation campaign so far include WWF Singapore, Project FIN, Fauna and Flora International, IUCN, Shark Research Institute, and Humane Society International.

- CNA/cc

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Iconic Conservationists Appeal to Indonesia to Save Orangutans from ‘Extreme Threat’

Jakarta Globe 14 Apr 12;

Nairobi. Characterizing Indonesia’s biodiversity as under “extreme threat,” the patrons of the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) – Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey, Richard Wrangham and Russell Mittermeier – have sent a letter to the president of Indonesia asking him to halt the destruction currently underway in Sumatra and enforce laws that protect orangutans and their habitat.

The letter was sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday in response to man-made fires in the Leuser Ecosystem that were set to clear rainforest for oil palm plantations through allegedly illegal permits.

New GRASP LogoExperts fear that as many as 300 orangutans could perish in the fires. The Sumatran orangutan is classified as critically endangered, and no more than 6,300 are believed to exist in the wild.

The fires have also damaged the region’s ecosystem. A 2011 report issued by GRASP and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called the Leuser Ecosystem as an “incredibly important area for conservation.”

The GRASP patrons, widely recognized as leaders in great ape conservation and research, have asked that President Yudhoyono suspend all agricultural activity in the region, enforce laws protecting orangutans and their habitat, and uphold commitments made through the Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes.

GRASP, a unique alliance comprised of member nations, conservation organizations, United Nations agencies, and private supporters, was created in 2001 to protect great apes and their habitat in Africa and Asia.

Open Letter to Indonesia President Yudhoyono to Save Orangutans
Jakarta Globe 14 Apr 12;

His Excellency
Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President
Republic of Indonesia
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta Pusat 10110 Indonesia

Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned, have devoted much of the past half-century to the study of great apes and the advocacy for their protection. That is why we are gravely concerned about the ecological damage caused by man-made fires in Sumatra, and why we write to you today as Patrons of the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) to ask you to halt this destruction.

The fires set to clear forest land in the Province of Aceh for oil palm plantations currently threaten the Leuser Ecosystem, which includes some of the most important great ape habitat in the world. Experts believe that as many as 300 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans may perish in the fires, pushing the species even closer to extinction.

In 2005, the Government of Indonesia signed the Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes, which articulated the need to “ensure the effective enforcement of legislation protecting great apes.”

The Leuser Ecosystem is classified as National Strategic Area for Environmental Protection under Indonesia’s National Spatial Plan, and is an important part of the country’s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) programme. The Leuser Ecosystem constitutes the buffer zone for the Leuser Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site, as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Leuser Ecosystem is protected under Indonesian law, and was declared off-limits to agricultural development through a Presidential moratorium on new plantations in primary forests and peatlands that was announced in 2011 as part of Indonesia’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, with support from the Government of Norway.

In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and GRASP published Orangutans and the Economics of Sustainable Forest Management in Sumatra, a report that called the region an “incredibly important area for conservation.” That same report indicated that the Leuser Ecosystem rose in value by 71 percent if economic benefits derived through conservation were adopted in favor of agricultural conversion.

As such, we respectfully ask that the Government of Indonesia:

Enforce the laws that protect the orangutans and habitat of the Leuser Ecosystem
Suspend all activities by oil palm companies on recently cleared and burned lands in the Leuser Ecosystem
Ban further land drainage and forest clearing in the Tripa peat swamps
Honor commitments made through the 2005 Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes
Honor commitments made through the 1972 World Heritage Convention

Indonesia contains some of the world’s most spectacular biodiversity, but that same biodiversity is under extreme threat, affecting issues such as the continued supply of clean water, clean air, local and regional climate stability, and other threats to life on earth.

Given the intense popular interest in the great apes and their precarious future, we believe that positive action by you and your government will be widely appreciated and warmly welcomed throughout the world. With that in mind, we therefore call on the Government of Indonesia to protect the country’s ecological heritage and halt the current destructive activities in Sumatra.

Sincerely,

Jane Goodall, PhD., DBE Dr. Richard Leakey
Founder, Jane Goodall Institute Professor of Anthropology
U.N. Messenger of Peace Stonybrook University

Richard Wrangham, PhD. Russell Mittermeier, PhD.
Professor of Anthropology President, Conservation International
Harvard University Chair, IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group

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Malaysia: Licences for sugar glider imports soon

Yiswaree Palansamy New Straits Times 13 Apr 12;

KUALA LUMPUR: SUGAR gliders, which have been enjoying popularity among pet enthusiasts, may soon require special licences to be kept as domestic species here.

Currently, the nocturnal creature is not covered under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 [Act 716] and the International Act 2008 [Act 686].

However, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) records show that the number of sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) being imported is on the rise as more people are keen to keep the species as pets.

Department director-general Dr Zaaba Zainol Abidin said they were taking steps to protect the animal by including it in the First Schedule of the act.

"This is because sugar glider is an exotic species, to control the importation of the species into the country and lastly, to control the ownership through licensing,

"We also want to protect the species from the illegal wildlife trade, which is quite rampant," said Dr Zaaba.

The New Straits Times learnt that the proposed First Schedule had been forwarded to the Attorney-General's Chambers for review. Once the revised schedule is gazetted, keeping sugar gliders or breeding the species will require a licence from Perhilitan.

The species is not protected under existing laws.

There are 8,936 sugar gliders registered with the department.

Although sugar gliders are not yet listed as an endangered animal, the species had been identified as one of the most commonly traded wild animals in the illegal pet trade.

Its relatives, such as the Leadbeater's Possum and the Mahogany Glider, are in need of great conservation efforts as they are two family species facing extinction.

The sugar glider is protected by law in South Australia, where it is illegal to keep them without a permit.

Dr Zaaba said that the department reviewed periodically the types of animals that are permitted to be kept as 'domestic friends' every year.

"We do an in-depth study on the species and check to see if they are listed as endangered or is on the brink of extinction before making a decision to allow such animals to be kept at homes."

He added that prior to taking home an animal which is listed as exotic, a person would be subjected to various requirements.

"We do not allow certain types of animals to be kept in condominiums, taking into account the animals' safety as well as the wellbeing of others," he said, adding that the review was extremely important.

Some of the animals which had been banned as domestic pets are the American bullfrog and the red deer.

Dr Zaaba said while the red-eared slider, a common kind of tortoise species seen at homes, is large in number here, it had already been banned from being imported into the country.

"The species, to begin with, is not a locally available breed and the ban took effect last December.

"However, we will only monitor and not take action against those already here."

Dr Zaaba added that the species could create chaos to the ecosystem and thus, its import had been halted.

Dr Zaaba said those who wanted to know more about the kinds of animals banned from being kept as pets could refer to the Fifth Schedule under the Wildlife Conservation Act. It can be downloaded from Perhilitan's website.

Malaysians sweet on sugar gliders
Yuen Mei Keng and Isabelle Lai The Star 29 May 12;

PETALING JAYA: There is a high demand for sugar gliders as pets even though these squirrel-like animals will soon be a protected species in Malaysia.

While the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) has confirmed that these small possums will be protected, it is business as usual for pet shops and breeders who sell them.

Breeder Goh Yong Chow said he sold about 20 to 48 sugar gliders a month compared to one or two monthly in 2008.

Goh, who owns a pet shop in Malacca, said it was a trend nowadays for people to keep unique and expensive pets.

“In 2007, there was a huge demand for hamsters but now, the focus is on ‘high-end’ pets like sugar gliders.

Sugar gliders are imported from Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Goh said they were now cheaper compared to previously when one baby sugar glider could be sold for between RM300 and RM350.

“Now, we sell them for RM250 each,” he said.

Pets More Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Sean Saw said sugar gliders were currently popular as the pets were “friendly, tame and easy to care for”.

Perhilitan said steps had been taken to include sugar gliders in the First Schedule of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

This will allow the department to control trade pertaining to the species, including importation and ownership through licensing.

Perhilitan said the proposed amendments to the First Schedule had been forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“Once the revised schedule is gazetted, keeping sugar gliders will require a licence from the Department.”

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50-plus Corals in U.S. Waters Face Extinction by Century's End

Endangered Species Act Protection Needed to Save Corals in Florida, Hawaii, Caribbean
Center for Biological Diversity 13 Apr 12;

SAN FRANCISCO— Without help, more than 50 coral species in U.S. waters are likely to go extinct by the end the century, primarily because of ocean warming, disease and ocean acidification, a government report said today. The National Marine Fisheries Service released a status review of 82 corals that are being considered for protections under the Endangered Species Act following a 2009 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Coral reefs are at real risk of vanishing in our lifetimes if we don’t act fast,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Endangered Species Act has saved hundreds of species from extinction, but these corals will only benefit if they’re actually protected.”

Of the 82 corals, 56 are likely to be extinct before 2100, the report said. The corals are in U.S. waters, ranging from Florida and Hawaii to U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. The report notes that the seven Florida and Caribbean corals are extremely likely to go extinct, and five of those corals ranked in the top seven of most imperiled overall. Today’s report makes no recommendation about whether the corals may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

According to the status review, “The combined direct and indirect effects of rising temperature, including increased incidence of disease and ocean acidification, both resulting primarily from anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO2, are likely to represent the greatest risks of extinction to all or most of the candidate coral species over the next century.”

Coral reefs are home to 25 percent of marine life and play a vital function in ocean ecosystems. Already one-third of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed, and scientists warn that by mid-century most corals will be in inhospitable waters that are too warm or acidic. Since the 1990s, coral growth has grown sluggish in some areas due to ocean acidification, and mass bleaching events are increasingly frequent.

“I’m eager to show my kids the wonder of a coral reef. I worry that if we wait too long, they’ll never get to experience a healthy reef teeming with colorful life,” said Sakashita. “These delicate corals need help, first with federal protections, and then with dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide pollution.”

The Fisheries Service is accepting comments on the coral status review and management reports until July 31, 2012. Pursuant to a settlement agreement with the Center, the Fisheries Service will make a determination on whether listing is warranted for the corals by Dec. 1, 2012. In 2006, the Center secured protection for staghorn and elkhorn corals, making them the first — and so far, only — corals listed under the Endangered Species Act.

For more information about these corals and how to submit comments, visit: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/coral_conservation/index.html.

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Indonesia quake a record, risks for Aceh grow

David Fogarty Reuters 12 Apr 12;

SINGAPORE | Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:10pm EDT

(Reuters) - The powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra this week was a once in 2,000 years event, and although it resulted in only a few deaths, it increases the risks of a killer quake in the region, a leading seismologist said.

Wednesday's 8.6 magnitude quake and a powerful aftershock were "strike-slip" quakes and the largest of that type recorded, Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, told Reuters.

"It's a really an exceptionally large and rare event," he said.

"Besides it being the biggest strike-slip earthquake ever recorded, the aftershock is the second biggest as far as we can tell," said Sieh, who has studied the seismically active, and deadly, fault zones around Sumatra for years.

Strike-slip quakes involve the horizontal movement of colliding earth plates, and are typically less powerful than those where there is vertical movement. They are also less likely to trigger big tsunamis, or tidal waves.

A magnitude 9.1 quake in roughly the same region on Boxing Day in 2004 decimated Aceh province on Sumatra and killed over 230,000 people in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean.

Sumatra, the westernmost island in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, has a history of powerful quakes and tsunamis, most triggered by an offshore zone along its entire length, where the Indian-Australian tectonic plate is forced under the Eurasian plate.

This creates a deep ocean trench as one plate slides under the other at a rate of several centimeters a year. In this zone, called the Sunda megathrust, stress builds up when the subducting Indian-Australian plate bends the Eurasian plate like a spring board as it moves down into the Earth's crust.

Eventually enough stress builds up that the edge of Eurasian plate suddenly jolts upward, triggering an earthquake. The sudden uplift of the seafloor and huge pulse of seawater triggers a tsunami.

Over the centuries, repeated magnitude 8 and 9 quakes have struck along portions of the megathrust zone off the coast of Sumatra, flattening towns and killing thousands of people.

STING IN THE TALE

Wednesday's event was different, Sieh said, because it occurred further west from the megathrust zone in a fault that runs north-south. This strike-slip fault involved a sudden horizontal movement of the Indian and Australian plates along hundreds of kilometers, preliminary data suggest.

Sieh said the Indian plate and Australian plate are moving relative to each other horizontally at about 1 cm a year.

"If all of that ... is taken up on this one fault and if you make some crude calculations about how much slip occurred during this earthquake, say 20 meters. It means that this earthquake shouldn't happen more than once every 2,000 years."

Wednesday's quake caused few casualties and triggered very small waves, despite its magnitude. But the sting in the tale is that it likely to have increased stress on the plate boundaries near Aceh, increasing the risks of another major earthquake in the same area as the 2004 disaster.

In addition, research by Sieh and colleagues published in 2010 showed that the 2004 Aceh quake only relieved about half the stress that has built up over the centuries along a 400 km portion of the megathrust faultline.

That makes another major quake in the area a matter of time.

Adding to concerns, further south along another 700 km portion of the megathrust fault under the Mentawai islands, Sieh and colleagues in a separate 2008 research said so much stress was building up on this section that one or more major quakes were likely within years.

The Mentawai islands, a popular surfing destination, are a chain of about 70 islands off the western coast of Sumatra. They face the city of Padang on Sumatra, home to about one million people and likely to be in the path of any tsunami that is triggered.

"I am very confident that we are very likely to have within the next few decades to have this great Mentawai earthquake that will have a magnitude at least as big as yesterday's," said Sieh.

And when it does, history shows there will be more than one quake within a few years.

He said a magnitude 8.4 quake in 2007 that struck this part of the megathrust relieved only a small portion of the pent-up pressure. The last time it ruptured was a magnitude 9 quake in 1833 and an 8.4 quake in 1797.

"We've had so many big earthquakes around in Sumatra in the past few years that it seems like an awful lot of the faults around there seem ready to go."

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Saving species could keep humans healthy

Sara Reardon New Scientist 13 Apr 12;

Are animals good for us? Several studies suggest that our chances of picking up an animal disease are reduced if we are surrounded by a variety of species – the thinking goes that abundant animal life acts a pool that prevents the disease from jumping to people. Others strongly disagree, arguing that more creatures means a greater variety of diseases and a higher chance that one of them will evolve to infect us.

The results of a new mathematical model presented at the Planet Under Pressure meeting in London last month suggest both sides may be right – depending on the type of biodiversity in an area. This means it may be as important for public health workers to watch for new diseases in, say, New York City where few animals live, as it is to monitor pathogens in biodiversity hotspots.

Benjamin Roche of the International Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Complex Systems in Bondy Cedex, France, who generated the model, says that it shows – perhaps unsurprisingly – that a diversity of disease carriers is bad news. This is certainly true for West Nile virus, Roche says, which is found in several US states and is successful partly because it can be transmitted by many mosquito species.

The model also shows, however, that humans may benefit if surrounded by a variety of animals – provided only some of them are susceptible to a disease, therefore lowering our chance of encountering an infected animal. West Nile has been less likely to cross into human populations in areas with high biodiversity among birds, which may act as reservoirs, says Felicia Keesing of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. She sees this as evidence that such biodiversity keeps the virus away from people and is good for health.

Whether these effects hold true on a global scale is still hotly debated. "It's a lovely story and I wish it were true," says Peter Daszak of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine in New York City. In 2008, he and colleagues published a paper in Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06536, which found that the areas of the world where diseases jump from animals to humans tend to contain many different species.

There is a "disappointingly simple" reason why biodiversity is bad for health, Daszak says. "There is a huge diversity of viruses and microbes in the wild that we don't know about yet." Using human health as an argument for keeping developers and ecotourists out of pristine habitats, he argues, is an even better way to confine animal diseases to animals.

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Best of our wild blogs: 13 Apr 12

Special giant clam at Terumbu Bemban
from wild shores of singapore

Common Iora feeding on a katydid
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Bishan Park after the rain
from Fahrenheit minus 459

Beach-goer can't enjoy stroll along Changi shoreline as it's strewn with rubbish
from Lazy Lizard's Tales

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Malaysia: Perhilitan to relocate wild elephants

The Star 13 Apr 12;

JERANTUT: Efforts are underway to trap and relocate several wild elephants which veered into an oil palm plantation in Felda Gelanggi Dua near here recently.

Pahang Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Khairiah Mohd Sharif said a team had been deployed to track down these pachyderms after receiving a complaint from several settlers.

“We have received information that a herd of wild elephants have trespassed into a plantation estate and destroyed crops.

“If there is a need, we would trap and relocate these elephants to another suitable location to prevent any untoward incident,” she said.

Khairiah said relocating these giant mammals was the best solution for both parties to ensure its survival in the natural habitat.

She said the exercise would cost the department RM45,000 for each elephant, in addition to allowances for its personnel.

“As such, relocation is the last resort as it is time consuming and a tedious process,” she said.

Last week, several settlers claimed they suffered losses of some RM5,000 when a herd of wild elephants trespassed into their plantation and ate some of its crops.

They said the elephants were believed to have veered from Berkelah forest reserve, bordering the settlement.

An estimated 1,200 wild elephants are said to roam the forests in the peninsular while between 400 and 500 of them have been relocated to Taman Negara, Rompin and Belum forest reserve.

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Great Barrier Reef ‘not so great’

James Cook University Science Alert 12 Apr 12;

Researchers at James Cook University have questioned why coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has continued to decline when it is recognised as “the best managed coral reef system in the world”.

Jon Brodie, Senior Principal Research Officer with JCU’s Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWater) and Research Fellow Jane Waterhouse said that recent estimates put average coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) at about 20–30% - estimated to be a large reduction since the 1960s.

“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act was enacted in 1975 and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) set up shortly afterwards,” they said.

“So the question is: why has coral cover continued to decline when the GBR is being managed with a management regime often recognised as ‘the best managed coral reef system in the world’, based on a strong science-for-management ethic.”

Writing in Elsevier’s Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science journal, Brodie and Waterhouse said that the stressors which are known to be most responsible for the loss of coral cover and general ‘reef health’ were terrestrial pollution including the link to outbreaks of crown of thorns starfish, fishing impacts and climate change.

“However the management response of the GBRMPA after 1975, while based on a strong science-for-management program, did not concentrate on these issues but instead on managing access through zoning with restrictions on fishing in very limited areas and tourism management.”

They wrote that significant action on fishing, including trawling, did not occur until the Trawl Management Plan of 2000 and the rezoning of the GBR Marine Park in 2004. Effective action on terrestrial pollution did not occur until the Australian Government Reef Rescue initiative, which commenced in 2008.

“Effective action on climate change has yet to begin either nationally or globally,” they said.

In their paper Mr Brodie and Ms Waterhouse said it was not surprising that coral cover on the GBR had reduced to values similar to those seen in other coral reef areas in the world such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

“Science has always required long periods to acquire sufficient evidence to drive management action and hence there is a considerable time lag between the establishment of scientific evidence and the introduction of effective management.

“It can still be credibly claimed that the GBR is the best managed coral reef system in the world but it must be realised that this is a relative assessment against other reef systems and management regimes and not an absolute claim for effective management.”

They said that the GBR has been managed under a complex but powerful regime with great governmental support, financing and research and monitoring expenditure since 1975.

They said there had been notable successes in recent times including:

the major rezoning of 2004 with new no-take zones showing increased fish populations but also apparent effects on crown of thorns starfish populations;

little loss of mangroves as a result of strong prohibitions on damaging marine plants under the Queensland Fisheries legislation;

sewage effluent discharges from resort islands and mainland cities and towns have been improved dramatically; and

strong action on compulsory pilotage and navigation equipment may have prevented many shipping accidents but ships still manage to run on to the reef every decade or so.

“On the other hand coral cover has declined considerably, seagrass health in the central GBR is in poor shape, dugong numbers have declined precipitously, shark populations are in serious decline (although perhaps recent management has reduced the rate of decline), many other large fish on the GBR have had large population declines (although data on many are incomplete) and the fourth wave of crown of thorns starfish outbreaks has commenced.

“Most notably coral bleaching has become more frequent, widespread and damaging and coral calcification has started to decline due to ocean acidification.”

They write that the reasons for this situation are complex but include the need for reasonably ‘certain’ science before management action occurs - and the long times need to achieve this.

Time lags in recovery after management action are long. For a slow breeding animal like a dugong – one calf every few years - population recovery is a very slow process and catchment management activities such as reafforestation of riparian areas take decades to reduce erosion and river sediment loads.

“In particular the need to get the political, organisational, scientific, economic and human elements to align at the right time so effective management can occur in time to avert phase change is a frighteningly difficult task,” Brodie and Waterhouse said.

They conclude that it “is easy now for us to claim that management should have focussed on these from the start of the GBRMPA. However, as is often said, hindsight is a wonderful thing and both authors of this paper have been engaged from long ago in a water quality management role for the GBR.”

“Our inability to manage climate change for the GBR, including increased temperatures, extreme weather events and ocean acidification, means that even in the light of some success in other management areas and the fact that the GBR is the best managed reef system in the world means the long term prognosis for a healthy GBR system is poor.

“The extension of the Reef Plan management actions beyond 2013, the continued strong management of no-take zones in the GBR and a better management regime for the coastal and estuarine areas of the GBR are thus even more essential to give us any hope of retaining some of the World Heritage values of the system.”

“A critical review of environmental management of the ‘not so Great’ Barrier reef” was published in the journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

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Why climate change might not spell death for the Reef

Sydney Morning Herald 13 Apr 12;

Rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change are unlikely to mean the end of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef, according to a new scientific study.

The Cell Press journal Current Biology this morning published what it says is the first large-scale investigation of climate effects on corals and found while some corals were dying, others were flourishing and adapting to the change in water temperatures.

For the study researchers identified and measured more than 35,000 coral colonies on 33 reefs across the length of the Great Barrier Reef to see how they were responding to warming ocean waters.


In results they have described as ‘‘surprising’’ the study found while one species declined in abundance, other species could rise in number.

One of the researchers, Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University, said while critical issues remained he now believed rising temperatures were unlikely to mean the end of the coral reef.

‘‘The good news is that, rather than experiencing wholesale destruction, many coral reefs will survive climate change by changing the mix of coral species as the ocean warms and becomes more acidic,’’ he said.

‘‘That’s important for people who rely on the rich and beautiful coral reefs of today for food, tourism, and other livelihoods.’’

He said earlier studies of climate change and corals had been done on a much smaller geographical scale, with a primary focus on total coral cover or counts of species as rather crude indicators of reef health.

‘‘We chose the iconic Great Barrier Reef as our natural laboratory because water temperature varies by 8 to 9 degrees Celsius along its full length from summer to winter, and because there are wide local variations in pH,’’ he said.

‘‘Its regional-scale natural gradients encompass the sorts of conditions that will apply several decades from now under business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions.’’

The warming of the ocean’s temperatures due to climate change will change the composition of coral reefs and while this will mean the end for some species it will mean others are adapting to survive.

The report also listed other human impact dangers to the reef including over-fishing and pollution and noted some coral had adapted to the new conditions these changes presented.

‘‘The accelerating impact of climate change on coral reefs is of major concern worldwide,’’ the report said.

‘‘Contemporary research on how climate change affects coral reefs has matured beyond the simplistic ‘‘canary in the coal mine’’ concept to a more nuanced recognition that climate-related pressures such as bleaching (due to the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae) and ocean acidification do not affect all species equally.

‘‘In this context, a critical issue for the future status of reefs will be their ability to maintain functional capacity in the face of the changes in species composition.’’

The report said coral reefs are one of the world’s most complex and vulnerable ecosystems and face an uncertain future in the coming decades as they continue to respond to the impacts of human contact and pollution and the called the findings of the study ‘‘profound’’.

‘‘The flexibility in community composition that we document along latitudinal environmental gradients indicates that climate change is likely to result in a reassortment of coral reef taxa rather than wholesale loss of entire reef ecosystems,’’ it said.

‘‘Our results have profound implications for the future expectations of regional-scale impacts of climate change on coral reefs.

‘‘Importantly, the susceptibility of corals to thermal stress and bleaching, reduced alkalinity, and other climate-related phenomena all vary substantially within and between taxa (the organisms which make up the coral reefs).’’

Under Climate Change, Winners and Losers On the Coral Reef
ScienceDaily 12 Apr 12;

As ocean temperatures rise, some species of corals are likely to succeed at the expense of others, according to a report published online on April 12 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology that details the first large-scale investigation of climate effects on corals.

"The good news is that, rather than experiencing wholesale destruction, many coral reefs will survive climate change by changing the mix of coral species as the ocean warms and becomes more acidic," said Terry Hughes of James Cook University in Australia. "That's important for people who rely on the rich and beautiful coral reefs of today for food, tourism, and other livelihoods."

In an attempt to understand the sorts of changes that may take place as the world's oceans warm, the researchers examined the coral composition of reefs along the entire length of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Earlier studies of climate change and corals have been done on a much smaller geographical scale, with a primary focus on total coral cover or counts of species as rather crude indicators of reef health.

"We chose the iconic Great Barrier Reef as our natural laboratory because water temperature varies by 8 to 9 degrees Celsius along its full length from summer to winter, and because there are wide local variations in pH," Hughes explained. "Its regional-scale natural gradients encompass the sorts of conditions that will apply several decades from now under business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions."

In total, the researchers identified and measured more than 35,000 coral colonies on 33 reefs. Their survey revealed surprising flexibility in the assembly of corals. As they saw one species decline in abundance, some other species would tend to rise. The waxing or waning of any given coral species the researchers observed as they moved along the coastline occurred independently of changes to other coral species.

Hughes concludes that corals' response to climate change is likely to be more complicated than many had thought. Although he now believes that rising temperatures are unlikely to mean the end of the coral reef, critical issues remain.

"If susceptible table and branching species are replaced by mound-shaped corals, it would leave fewer nooks and crannies where fish shelter and feed," he said. "Coral reefs are also threatened by much more local impacts, especially by pollution and overfishing. We need to address all of the threats, including climate change, to give coral reefs a fighting chance for the future."

Journal Reference:

Hughes TP, Baird AH,Dinsdale EA, Moltschaniwskyj NA, Pratchett MS, Tanner JE, Willis BL. Assembly rules of reef corals are flexible along a steep climatic gradient. Current Biology, 2012 (in press)

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Are 4 Big Earthquakes in 2 Days Connected?

Stephanie Pappas LiveScience.com Yahoo News 13 Apr 12;

The 8.6-magnitude earthquake that hit off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, yesterday (April 11) was followed by several decent-size shakes along the west coast of North America, but researchers can't say for certain whether all the temblors were related.

It's possible, geophysicists say, that quakes off the coast of Oregon, Michoacan, Mexico, and in the Gulf of California ranging from magnitudes 5.9 to 6.9 on the Richter Scale had something to do with the large earthquake that struck near Indonesia. But the west coast quakes were fairly standard for their location.

"The Earth is in constant motion," said Aaron Velasco, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, El Paso. "I wouldn't necessarily say it's unusual, but we will definitely be looking at these earthquakes to see if there's any link between them."

It's undeniable that earthquakes can trigger other quakes at close range over a short period of time, phenomena known as aftershocks. At a distance, though, the picture is murkier. Quakes can trigger other quakes in two ways, said John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington. First, they can put stress on nearby faults, deforming the crust and making another rupture more likely. That mechanism is limited to regions close to the original quake.

But earthquakes also send surface waves over long distances. The shaking from yesterday's Sumatra quake, for example, was picked up by seismic monitoring stations in the United States. The shaking may not deform the crust, but researchers leave open the possibility that it could still jump-start small quakes. [See a movie of the Sumatra quake shaking the U.S. Midwest]

"My guess is that the shaking was strong enough to actually trigger a little bit of activity," Vidale told LiveScience. But if the west coast activity of the last few days was related to the Sumatra quake, it wasn't out of the ordinary, he added.

"The activity it triggered isn't that much more than was already there," Vidale said. "It doesn't add much to the overall danger."

Proving that two earthquakes are linked over long distances or more than a couple of hours of time is "one of the toughest challenges we face," Velasco told LiveScience. With the earthquake records that are available, it hasn't yet been possible to find any firm patterns, he said.

"We don't have enough data to say yes, and we don't have enough data to say no," he said.

Prognosticating quakes is difficult, because humans don't live on the geologic time scale, said G. Randy Keller, a geophysicist at the University of Oklahoma.

"We only have recorded earthquakes for about 100 years, scientifically," Keller told LiveScience. What that means, he said, is that "if you get somebody who tells you he's got it all figured out, don't believe him."

What researchers do know is that the Sumatra quake was interesting on its own. The quake was a strike-slip quake, meaning the fault moved horizontally, not vertically like the enormous 2004 earthquake that triggered the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. [Waves of Destruction: History's Biggest Tsunamis]

"This particular earthquake is the biggest strike-slip earthquake that we've seen anywhere, and people are trying to figure out how much motion was on the fault," Vidale said. Either the fault went deeper or was under more strain than seismologists had realized, he said.

"It's too soon to say exactly what we'll learn," Vidale said. "So far, we're just surprised."

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