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Off the coast of Miami, corals die. Why? Due to a 16-month project to expand the harbor channel. A new study shows how the project killed more than half a million corals between 2013 and 2015.
Published on Thursday in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, the study included observations of coral soil and satellite images to determine the extent of sedimentation caused by dredging the project through dredging and its ultimate impact on human health. corals. The authors found that nearly 2,000 pounds of sediment choked the reefs about every 10 square feet a kilometer and a half from the dredging site.
"If we want to conserve these ecosystems for future generations, it is essential that we do everything in our power to conserve the remaining corals."
As the authors found, up to 74% of the corals died near the channel in the months following the dredging to widen the shipping channel. Even two years later, the researchers found that coral density about 65 feet from the channel had been affected by sedimentation.
Corals are quite fragile organisms. If the water gets too hot, they can begin to die by expelling the algae they need to produce food. Too much acid in the water (because of carbon dioxide) and the corals weaken and can contract. Now, if the sand and sediment accumulate above the corals, they lose access to light, which helps their algae to produce food, and they can use a lot of water. energy to try to remove all that sediment. In short, all of these things can kill corals, who are already dying en masse in the world because of climate change.
"If we want to conserve these ecosystems for future generations, it is essential that we do everything we can to conserve the remaining corals," said lead author Andrew Baker, associate professor of marine biology and marine biology. 39 ecology at the University of Miami, in an academic release. "These climate survivors could be the key to understanding how some corals can survive global changes."
According to the study, in Miami, more than 560,000 corals were killed in the immediate vicinity of dredging. The authors were able to look at where sediment plumes were located via satellite images to estimate the distance of the impact. It turns out that they were probably felt more than six miles from where the dredging took place. Before the start of the project, only one coral had been identified as partially buried under sediment. After the project, the reefs were completely transformed.
An independent consulting firm that the Port of Miami and the Army Corps of Engineers have hired to carry out environmental monitoring of the project has previously attributed massive coral death to an outbreak. This study, however, controlled this and examined how corals closest to dredging behaved during this period. The results of the study contradict what the consulting firm discovered and demonstrate the usefulness of using satellite imagery, on-site observations and sediment data to find the root cause of what causes harm to the coral.
"It was important to differentiate these multiple impacts on the reefs to understand the direct effects of dredging," said lead author Ross Cunning, a biology researcher at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. "We have gathered all available data from satellites, sediment traps and hundreds of underwater surveys. Together, the many independent data sets clearly show that dredging has caused the major damage observed on these reefs. "
The results are heartbreaking: the endangered Staghorn coral, protected under the Endangered Species Act, was one of those who were affected. The same is true for Elkhorn coral, another endangered species. These corals need all the protection possible. And the development projects that kill them certainly do not help the threats of global warming.
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