A
Anonymous
Guest
or, "Ermm, hmm, uh, yeah, we knew this would happen. Again."
http://faculty.disl.org/Publications/Pr ... 202004.pdf
Read this article. Now think about all the staghorn/elkorn endangered species/extinction propaganda you've recently read or seen on these boards and elsewhere.
As most of you know, my work is primarily in climate history and paleoceanography (specifically Atlantic/Caribbean Basin reefs) through coral proxies, and my focus is on Caribbean acroporids.
I've seen the Broward County staghorn fields (yes, fields of it) with my own eyes, and it's hard to believe (but likely) that it has grown since the 70's. Any of you familiar with the 60's and 70's on the Northern Keys reefs tract will know that it was a huge boom period for staghorn especially, beginning primarily after the enormous distribution of fragments starting with Hurricane Donna. Any of you familiar with them recently, you know that it's anything but boom, especially for the lower regions of the Keys tract. It's also hard to believe that these corals, so sensitive we are led to believe, are growing snorkeling distance away from one of the most populated and industrialized beaches on the East Coast. Hmmm. I also have firsthand knowledge of several northern newly (within the past 3 years) recruited populations of staghorn.
Absences in staghorn populations in the Keys are not unprecedented. There is a very nice neat record of storm deposits of staghorn in the Keys that date from the mid/early Holocene to present (except for a 500 year gap). They are absent from the Early Holocene, which was warmer than now. While this is not direct evidence of a similar acroporid annihilation from what we know as the present Keys reef tract, it does suggest that increased investigation may show a precedent in the simultaneous reduction of keys populations and a northern shift in population of acroporids (we already know that populations did expand further north during the early Holocene warm period), which are essentially boom/bust weeds.
Even bigger news than staghorn expansion, is elkhorn expansion. Perfect, healthy colonies are showing up, again, in northern waters, off beaches you would never expect given the conditions it flourished under in the last 50 years throughout the Caribbean: shallow (< 5m), crystal clear waters with minimal sedimentation and vigorous wave action and tidal flows.
Given the presence of ice rafting events (Heinrich Events) and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, which are very rapid sea surface temperature warming, likely caused by re-ignition of heat transport by North Atlantic Deepwater formation after the warming of the equatorial ocean during periods of little deep water formation (deep water formation drives ocean-based poleward heat transport), through the last 80,000 years (prior to this interglacial and after the last interglacial), I think we should have expected baseline shifts like this. I imagine these corals may be capable of responding much faster given a stronger forcing from more rapid SST changes.
Anyway, those are my random thoughts for the evening.
http://faculty.disl.org/Publications/Pr ... 202004.pdf
Read this article. Now think about all the staghorn/elkorn endangered species/extinction propaganda you've recently read or seen on these boards and elsewhere.
As most of you know, my work is primarily in climate history and paleoceanography (specifically Atlantic/Caribbean Basin reefs) through coral proxies, and my focus is on Caribbean acroporids.
I've seen the Broward County staghorn fields (yes, fields of it) with my own eyes, and it's hard to believe (but likely) that it has grown since the 70's. Any of you familiar with the 60's and 70's on the Northern Keys reefs tract will know that it was a huge boom period for staghorn especially, beginning primarily after the enormous distribution of fragments starting with Hurricane Donna. Any of you familiar with them recently, you know that it's anything but boom, especially for the lower regions of the Keys tract. It's also hard to believe that these corals, so sensitive we are led to believe, are growing snorkeling distance away from one of the most populated and industrialized beaches on the East Coast. Hmmm. I also have firsthand knowledge of several northern newly (within the past 3 years) recruited populations of staghorn.
Absences in staghorn populations in the Keys are not unprecedented. There is a very nice neat record of storm deposits of staghorn in the Keys that date from the mid/early Holocene to present (except for a 500 year gap). They are absent from the Early Holocene, which was warmer than now. While this is not direct evidence of a similar acroporid annihilation from what we know as the present Keys reef tract, it does suggest that increased investigation may show a precedent in the simultaneous reduction of keys populations and a northern shift in population of acroporids (we already know that populations did expand further north during the early Holocene warm period), which are essentially boom/bust weeds.
Even bigger news than staghorn expansion, is elkhorn expansion. Perfect, healthy colonies are showing up, again, in northern waters, off beaches you would never expect given the conditions it flourished under in the last 50 years throughout the Caribbean: shallow (< 5m), crystal clear waters with minimal sedimentation and vigorous wave action and tidal flows.
Given the presence of ice rafting events (Heinrich Events) and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, which are very rapid sea surface temperature warming, likely caused by re-ignition of heat transport by North Atlantic Deepwater formation after the warming of the equatorial ocean during periods of little deep water formation (deep water formation drives ocean-based poleward heat transport), through the last 80,000 years (prior to this interglacial and after the last interglacial), I think we should have expected baseline shifts like this. I imagine these corals may be capable of responding much faster given a stronger forcing from more rapid SST changes.
Anyway, those are my random thoughts for the evening.
