Comments on: “This is the worst coral bleaching episode in Australia’s history” https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/ Tue, 10 May 2016 15:56:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Ft McMurray Fire and Climate Change: Michael Mann Comments – Greg Laden's Blog https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469242 Tue, 10 May 2016 15:56:35 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469242 […] “This is the worst coral bleaching episode in Australia’s history” […]

]]> By: cRR Kampen https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469241 Mon, 25 Apr 2016 17:26:33 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469241 Plastic.
During last winter 29 sperm whales washed ashore on North Sea coasts. Cause of death just got published. Plastics. Stomachs full so they simply could no longer eat. They no longer could endure diving deep for their food and came to seas too shallow for them, and starved.

]]> By: brainstorms https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469240 Sun, 24 Apr 2016 17:44:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469240 Thomas, what’re ya gonna eat when there’s no fish left as a result? That plastic?

]]> By: Thomas https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469239 Sun, 24 Apr 2016 11:47:11 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469239 Bah, future nature documentaries can always be filmed at the few reefs that survives and that will keep people happy when they sit in their couches looking at pictures of pretty reefs. Worst case there is archived stock photo to use. Scuba divers will simply have to switch to wreck diving, or maybe all the plastic dumped in the ocean will congeal into interesting formations.

]]> By: Bernard J. https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469238 Fri, 22 Apr 2016 02:16:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469238 David, I’ve tried to reply to your post a couple of times but I seem to have encountered a moderation wall. My comments can be found here:

http://blog.hotwhopper.com/2016/04/open-thread-plus-deniosphere-update.html?showComment=1461291265990#c5937193839852932316

]]> By: Brainstorms https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469237 Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:17:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469237 …and then we see the endless “campaigns against GMO reefs and forests”.

]]> By: cosmicomics https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469236 Thu, 21 Apr 2016 19:30:04 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469236 #2

Article by Elizabeth Kolbert: Unnatural Selection

“Researchers are hoping to “assist” evolution in order to produce hardier corals and tougher trees.”

“What if the qualities that made some corals hardier than others could be identified? Perhaps this information could be used to produce tougher varieties. Humans might, in this way, design reefs capable of withstanding human influence.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/a-radical-attempt-to-save-the-reefs-and-forests

]]> By: lynne seipp siegel https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469235 Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:59:04 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469235 gah! so sad! i scuba’d in guam for a generation in the 80’s and was always grateful for the beauty just below the surface. when will we ever care about the damage we are doing?

]]> By: Brainstorms https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469234 Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:26:38 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469234 Talk about “a distribution problem”. Writ large.

]]> By: David Whitlock https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/04/20/this-is-the-worst-coral-bleaching-episode-in-australias-history/#comment-469233 Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:19:23 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22403#comment-469233 I don’t know much about these dinoflagellates. How difficult would it be to engineer them to be more resistant to higher temperatures and would that be effective at preventing coral bleaching?

They are eukaryotes, so selective breeding might work too.

Can clones from corals that didn’t bleach be propagated and transplanted to bleached spots before the coral dies?

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