As Ocean Acidifiction Intensifies, Soft-Bodied Corals Simply Dissolving - 90%+ Dieoff At Study Sites

[hatrack]

The hard-bodied corals that are the most familiar site in reefs around the world aren't the only corals being destroyed by global warming. Soft corals, another integral part of reef environments, are simply melting away, thanks to Earth's rising temperature.



EDIT

Environmental stress, such as rising ocean temperatures, can damage both kinds of coral, causing them to expel the microscopic algae that live in their tissues and provide them with an ample source of energy. (The colony picture above shows signs that it is suffering from high temperatures and has lost some of its symbiotic algae.)

Hard-bodied corals die and leave their ghostly-white skeletons behind, but soft corals simply melt away, says marine biologist Hudi Benayahu of Tel Aviv University.

Benayahu has studied coral reefs around the globe and has noticed a dramatic die-off of soft corals in recent years. Where once they were found in about 50 to 60 percent of the study sites, only about 5 percent now remain, Benayahu said. Of one Japanese soft coral site, Benayahu noted that "there was a massive disappearance of soft corals. You can't imagine this was the same site. Just two years passed and the entire area was deserted, lifeless."

EDIT/END

http://www.livescience.com/imageoftheday/siod_071113.html

[phantom power]

1. Just trying to imagine how bad this is makes my head explode.

[GliderGuider]

2. Jeeze, you alarmists give me such a pain. It's just coral for chrisake!

Who needs coral? We can make plastic coral that looks better than the real thing!

I'm going to go out to my garage, close the door, run the car and listen to the radio for a while now.

[phantom power]

3. Do you know what makes this so extra special?

we aren't just killing off this ecosystem. We're fucking dissolving it. Like something out of a B-movie.

[tom_paine]

7. LOL. Maybe that old Charlie Sheen movie had it right

Perhaps the aliens are terraforming us and eliminating our ecosystem in order to fully replace it with their own (as advanced aliens I presume they also have an advanced understanding of ecology, as well).

As good an idea as any to entertain ourselves with while the species dies slwoly over the next two to five millenia.

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Just finished reading "Under a Green Sky" today.

My, my, my, but we sure are screwed!

[hatrack]

5. Yeah, I read that a few months back - does kind of get your attention, doesn't it?

Oh, and I'm sorry the original article didn't have (IIRC) everybody's favorite phrase here at E&E - "faster than expected."

I'm sure it is, but it's much more fun to have it in print.

[XemaSab]

6. You called?

[hatrack]

8. BWA-HAHHAHHAH!!!

:rofl: - Xema, you rule!