Queensland study finds coral adapts to acidic ocean

[scpg02]

Queensland study finds coral adapts to acidic ocean

Date
December 3, 2014 - 3:33PM

A key reef-building coral that can survive a more acidic ocean is giving scientists hope that the world's reefs stand a chance against climate change.

An international team of researchers has been using baby corals from the Great Barrier Reef to study the impacts of ocean acidification.

A large portion of the world's carbon emissions and greenhouse gases is being absorbed by the ocean, leading to higher acidity levels that are harmful to coral reefs and small marine animals.

James Cook University ecologist Dr Aurelie Moya has been leading research into how baby corals' genes react to a more acidic ocean and the findings have been promising.

Dr Moya says the formation of baby corals were disrupted when exposed to high carbon dioxide levels over three days.

However, after nine days the corals had re-adjusted.

"Longer exposure seems to be less detrimental to coral health than we had assumed based on shorter-term studies," Dr Moya said.

~snip~

www.smh.com.au/environment/queensland-study-finds-coral-adapts-to-acidic-ocean-20141203-11zdht.html

[nautonnier]

Dec 3, 2014 6:39:03 GMT scpg02 said:

Queensland study finds coral adapts to acidic ocean

Date
December 3, 2014 - 3:33PM

A key reef-building coral that can survive a more acidic ocean is giving scientists hope that the world's reefs stand a chance against climate change.

An international team of researchers has been using baby corals from the Great Barrier Reef to study the impacts of ocean acidification.

A large portion of the world's carbon emissions and greenhouse gases is being absorbed by the ocean, leading to higher acidity levels that are harmful to coral reefs and small marine animals.

James Cook University ecologist Dr Aurelie Moya has been leading research into how baby corals' genes react to a more acidic ocean and the findings have been promising.

Dr Moya says the formation of baby corals were disrupted when exposed to high carbon dioxide levels over three days.

However, after nine days the corals had re-adjusted.

"Longer exposure seems to be less detrimental to coral health than we had assumed based on shorter-term studies," Dr Moya said.

~snip~

www.smh.com.au/environment/queensland-study-finds-coral-adapts-to-acidic-ocean-20141203-11zdht.html

Whereas the history of the development of coral during times when the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 3 or 4 times higher than now did not give them confidence?

[Ratty]

It was JCU that sacked Bob Carter. Maybe the wheel is really turning?

The peer reviewed paper is published here: Wiley Online Library

Abstract

Corals play a key role in ocean ecosystems and carbonate balance but their molecular response to ocean acidification remains unclear. The only previous whole transcriptome study (Moya et al. 2012) documented extensive disruption of gene expression, particularly of genes encoding skeletal organic matrix proteins, in juvenile corals (A. millepora) after short-term (3 d) exposure to elevated pCO2. In the present study, whole transcriptome analysis was used to compare the effects of such “acute” (3 d) exposure to elevated pCO2 with a longer (“prolonged”; 9 d) period of exposure beginning immediately post-fertilisation. Far fewer genes were differentially expressed under the 9 d treatment and, although the transcriptome data implied wholesale disruption of metabolism and calcification genes in the acute treatment experiment, expression of most genes was at control levels after prolonged treatment. There was little overlap between the genes responding to the acute and prolonged treatments, but HSPs and HSFs were over-represented amongst the genes responding to both treatments. Amongst these was an HSP70 gene previously shown to be involved in acclimation to thermal stress in a field population of another acroporid coral. The most obvious feature of the molecular response in the 9 d treatment experiment was the up-regulation of five distinct Bcl-2 family members, the majority predicted to be anti-apoptotic. This suggests that an important component of the longer-term response to elevated CO2 is suppression of apoptosis. It therefore appears that juvenile A. millepora have the capacity to rapidly acclimate to elevated pCO2, a process mediated by up-regulation of specific HSPs and a suite of Bcl-2 family members.

[Ratty]

Mar 15, 2017 20:18:47 GMT @codewhacker said:

There’s only one way to save the Great Barrier Reef, scientists conclude

By Dennis NormileMar. 15, 2017 , 2:00 PM
www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/there-s-only-one-way-save-great-barrier-reef-scientists-conclude

That's sure to be an old Greenpeace comparison photo: They lie!

[douglavers]

The presumption is that the two photographs were taken from exactly the same position.[?]

Questions which might be interesting:

Why is the second photo from about six years ago?

Was there a large scale cyclonic event immediately before the second photo?

Prima facie, the photos are not evidence.

[Ratty]

Mar 16, 2017 10:42:05 GMT @codewhacker said:

Mar 16, 2017 2:12:12 GMT douglavers said:

The presumption is that the two photographs were taken from exactly the same position.[?]

Questions which might be interesting:

Why is the second photo from about six years ago?

Was there a large scale cyclonic event immediately before the second photo?

Prima facie, the photos are not evidence.

I added the photo myself it was not part of the original story. I fake the reader into accepting the photo and will assume no one went to the story to verify if the photo was real.


Opps!

It's OK Code. Fake news or not, I'm still happy to believe the "Greens lie" explanation.

Oops! I omitted the "peace" after "Green".....

[Ratty]

Dead zones: Reef Hypoxia Study

[missouriboy]

Mar 16, 2017 11:29:10 GMT Ratty said:

Mar 16, 2017 10:42:05 GMT @codewhacker said:

I added the photo myself it was not part of the original story. I fake the reader into accepting the photo and will assume no one went to the story to verify if the photo was real.


Opps!

It's OK Code. Fake news or not, I'm still happy to believe the "Greens lie" explanation.

Collard? or turnip?  Never trust a vegetable.

[acidohm]

In any case....the oceans aren't acidic...they're alkali!!!!

It just doesn't sound scary when the headline is

"SLIGHTLY LESS ALKALI OCEAN AFFECTING CORAL"

[missouriboy]

Mar 22, 2017 17:08:08 GMT acidohm said:

In any case....the oceans aren't acidic...they're alkali!!!!

It just doesn't sound scary when the headline is

"SLIGHTLY LESS ALKALI OCEAN AFFECTING CORAL"

But ... in a world of fake news ALKA-LI(e) is affecting coral's perception.  

[Ratty]

Reef alive with colour - expedition finds little bleaching

By PETER MICHAEL


AMAZING DISPLAY: The Great Barrier Reef appears to have recovered from bleaching events. Pictures: Stephen Frink

NEW images show the stunning recovery of coral affected by mass bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef.
World-renowned underwater photographer Stephen Frink captured the shots on the latest dive expedition to remote reefs off Cape York.

“It was one of the healthiest reef systems I’ve seen in the last five years of diving,’’ the industry veteran said.
He also captured images of a sea anemone spawning in synchronicity with the annual coral spawning on the 2300km-long wonder.

In March, scientists reported two-thirds of coral coverage had been wiped out in mass bleaching events along the 700km stretch of reef north of Port Douglas in far north Queensland.

“We’d been led to believe you’ve got a great big dead coral reef,” said the Floridabased publisher of Alert Diver magazine, which is read by 240,000 active divers in the US. But Frink said there was very little sign of coral bleaching or mortality.

“Everywhere we went it was some of the healthiest, most abundant and colourful coral cover you could hope to see,’’ he said.

The Spirit of Freedom expedition last week dived 38 outer reef sites from the Cod Hole, near Lizard Island, to the turtle rookery of Raine Island off the tip of Cape York.

Meanwhile, a new report has found the number of natural World Heritage sites at risk from climate change has doubled in three years.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was launched at the UN climate summit in Bonn, Germany, which is working towards the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

“Climate change acts fast and is not sparing the finest treasures of our planet,” said Inger Andersen, the union’s director-general.

The report highlights the growth threat of warmer, more acidic seas, which scientists blame for bleaching.

[sigurdur]

Let's see,the reef has recovered,but we must bow down because someplace else is in distress.

The last paragraph is a doozy!

[missouriboy]

THE REEF IS ALIVE - As Through Past Eons

CO are the first 2 letters in CORAL.

[sigurdur]

When did the oceans become acidic??? Last I read average PH was in the 8's. Is there a new PH scale???

[nautonnier]

Nov 17, 2017 14:03:31 GMT sigurdur said:

When did the oceans become acidic??? Last I read average PH was in the 8's. Is there a new PH scale???

The oceans have huge buffering due to the amount of carbonates and carbonate rocks there is no way they can become 'acidic'. In fact they are close to caustic.