Atlantic Staghorn and Elkhorn...

[Anonymous]

Cool.

Don't worry about a long, coherent answer Galleon. Remember who you're dealing with.

Just a short answer to indicate whether this is right tree or not would be sufficient.

 

[Anonymous]

Certain people are fighting tooth and claw to get all Caribbean Acroporids on the ESA.

You are talking about the fine young attorney from San Francisco.

Much of the credible reef science community is opposed to it. Observations like these are being made by people scouring for every shred of rationalization they can muster to list these coral species.

I have no stake or firm opinion on this issue. Do you feel that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is problematic as is, or that American Acropora doesn't fit into the given definition put forth by the ESA, or what?

I'm all ears.

I have no real opinion on the ESA as a whole, but to answer your question with a question, what precedent is there for the ESA to be effective on a coral that is essentially being plagued with a disease we know nothing about? Or coral in general? As Gene Shinn put it, we just have a name for the problem. Nothing else. Much of the community is worried that the ESA listing will severely hinder and restrict any present and future research applicable to Acroporid demise, and at the moment there is no big money funding any research of the sort. My concern is that, as illustrated by the points above, this is a lawyer's folley, not practical or valid, and may have further negative impacts for the Caribbean acroporids.

If you've read Gene Shinn's note in Marine Pollution Bulletin, these points will already be familiar to you.

 

[Anonymous]

One: will coral adapt to global warming induced warmer water?

The fossil record seems to suggest that this is possible to a certain extent.

Two: if not, will they spread to cooler water (i.e. the water that up until now has been too cool, but thanks to global warming is now warm enough) naturally?

See first answer.

If not, would human attempts to mariculture them on new sites help this spread and maybe preserve some coral diversity for the future.

That's up to your own opinion, really.

 

[Kalkbreath]

Any reports on what species of fish inhabit the Northern "fields" that might not be present in the South? Perhaps the Pacific fish are the key?
I have a theory which involves the dominant bacterium in an specific ecosystem.Just like our human digestive tracts , fish relay on bacteria to digest the food they have eaten. Many hobbyists have observed the difficult recovery a fish like tangs have if the bacteria in their stomach gets out of whack. No matter how much they eat , the fish cant seem to regain its health and fatten back up. It usually takes a healthy fish introduced into the same system as the ailing fish to provide the needed good bacteria and reseed the system and the sick fish.
Currently the most active bacteria in the keys is a human fecal derivative .{not fish} The natural bacteria for the region have been displaced. Herbivorous fish usually provide corals with a daily dose of piscine fecal showers, {kinda like a fecal piñata in the shape of Dory} this keeps the natural bacteria the dominant one out on the reef. Too few fish and too much Human bacteria has tipped the scale and hard corals are not adapting well. Fish from the Pacific have a different bacteria in their bellies then then native Caribbean fish . Perhaps bacteria is playing a greater role then water temperatures in coral health?

 

[Anonymous]

For you sumpers following this thread, Kalkbreath is kind of like reefs.org's very own Gimp.

 

[Anonymous]

One: will coral adapt to global warming induced warmer water?

The fossil record seems to suggest that this is possible to a certain extent.

Two: if not, will they spread to cooler water (i.e. the water that up until now has been too cool, but thanks to global warming is now warm enough) naturally?

See first answer.

If not, would human attempts to mariculture them on new sites help this spread and maybe preserve some coral diversity for the future.

That's up to your own opinion, really.

Thanks Galleon. The idea or establishing a reef where one didn't exist before, or where there was one which was destroyed, interests me (in the shallow way of the uninformed). I saw a story about a guy here planting (right word?) frags on reefs that had been killed by sediment from construction (now completed). After a few years, they still seem to be doing very well, though his operation is a labor of love and therefore very limited in scope (he does it all from his own pocket - runs an LFS).

 

[Kalkbreath]

For you sumpers following this thread, Kalkbreath is kind of like reefs.org's very own Gimp.

Thanks galleon! But your the one with the Gimp image close at hand saved on your computor .........