Saving Coral Reefs: Researchers Race Against Time to Restore Vital Ecosystems

Published Thursday, July 26

Something terrible was happening at the end of the summer of 2016 on coral reefs nestled under water at a hundred miles from the Galveston coast: corals colorful and vibrant became white and dying. 19659003] The problem began when the water temperature reached over 86 degrees Fahrenheit, an unusually high temperature for this area of ​​the Gulf of Mexico. Corals can withstand a few days of this heat, but the higher the number of days of high temperature, the more the color of the corals is "bleached", a process in which invertebrates expel the algae that give them color and provide them with the food. 19659004] Corals, literally, starved

By the time the three-month heat wave has ended, half the corals on the east side of the 56 square mile limit of the National Flower Marine Sanctuary Garden Banks were whitewashed. About 2% died, making 2016 the worst year of bleaching the sanctuary for more than a decade.

Once a rarity, especially for deep-sea corals like the Flower Garden Banks, a study published in January in Science Magazine reveals that five times more often than it was forty years ago

READ MORE: Mass & # 39; die-off & # 39; reported to the Flower Garden Banks National Sanctuary

The 1400-mile Australian Great Barrier Reef, for example consecutive years of bleaching in 2016 and 2017, resulting in 900 miles of pure white coral. A similar situation occurred in 2014 and 2015 in the Florida Keys, an area that now has less than 10% live coral covering the reef.

By 2050, the World Resources Institute expects the water temperature to increase several times a year. the world, a direct result of climate change. The institute is a global nonprofit organization focused on climate, water and ocean research.

Some experts claim that a world without coral reefs is on the horizon, but Texas scientists and Florida Keys are working against the clock to save coral. According to the institute, many projects to extend protections to hundreds of kilometers of deep coral in the Gulf of Mexico are awaiting federal approval. And a research center in the Florida Keys is raising and growing coral to plant on the region's impoverished reefs in the hope of bringing them back to life, an effort that the center is trying to replicate in Canada. other regions, including the Lone Star State. "We will need to be much more innovative and proactive if we want to see coral reefs thrive in the next century," said Gabby Ahmadia, a marine science scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. "Conventional conservation will not cut it against the impacts of climate change."

Hot Waters

Researchers still learn about the deep coral of the Gulf of Mexico, like those found in flower banks that dot the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

In fact, they still map it. Since 2007, NOAA has documented approximately 36,000 separate coral observations on 52 cruises

But scientists know that protection against environmental and human factors such as global warming, overfishing and adverse human interactions to these coral reefs. The gardens are between 55 and 160 feet below the surface – is declining

and much of this can be attributed to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide emitted into the air – via the burning of fossil fuels, livestock and residential electricity, among others – warms the atmosphere, which then warms the oceans and causes the bleaching of the reefs, according to the institute.

– An organization from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute of the University of California at San Diego estimates that the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. carbon, since 1955.

the international attention in the late 1990s, devastated the coral.

The 2016 bleaching event was not the first to touch Flower Gardens and it certainly will not be the last. In 2005, 45% of Flower Garden bleached; According to data from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, damage reached about 7% in 2012.

According to the evidence, by 2050, 95% of the world's reefs will experience severe discoloration by most of the time.

Dioxide levels also make the ocean water become more acidic, which eats aragonite, compound corals use to build their skeletons. The institute reports that by 2030, less than half of the world's reefs will be in areas where the amount of aragonite is appropriate.

"This suggests that coral growth rates could be significantly reduced," according to Reefs at Risk Revisited report.

It's only a matter of time, the researchers say, before these events begin to have an impact on the deep-sea coral of the Gulf. Researchers and advocates are trying to protect as much of these important ecosystems as possible from the decline, sending two separate protection plans to the federal government for approval.

"If you wait until there is significant damage before protecting the sites, it's like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped," Holly said. Binns, director of ocean conservation work The Pew Charitable Trusts in the Southeast. "We want to protect corals proactively, to make sure we do not cause significant damage to the coral."

Ecosystem Protection

In May, a stakeholder group sent the Trump administration a proposal to extend the flower gardens to 206 square miles, 17 banks of 56 square miles or three banks. . If approved by the administration, the sanctuary would provide, among other things, four times more coral protection against anchoring, overfishing, oil drilling and harmful discharges such as oil.

The flower gardens are one of 13 national marine sanctuaries in the United States, although it is the only one in the Gulf of Mexico

CONSERVATION: Propose Coral Reef Propagation protected Trump sent to the administration

The following month, the Fisheries Management Board of the Gulf of Mexico. The governing body for fisheries in federal waters of the Gulf voted 21 sites, or 484 miles of reefs, throughout the Gulf as habitat areas of particular concern. The designation, which is yet to be approved by the federal government, means that the council can establish ways to prevent or mitigate reef damage through activities currently authorized by federal and state agencies on sites such as oil or gas drilling. this case, fishing.

To date, 1,199 square nautical miles in the Gulf bear this designation. Many researchers and experts have been unable to provide the Chronicle with an account of the total number of kilometers of coral reefs in the Gulf, attributing this lack of information to their continued mapping of the region.

These protections would not prevent what happened at flower gardens after the floods of tax day 2016, when some areas of the sanctuary experienced a 50 percent mortality rate corals and species living near them. The researchers still do not know why – they think it's because the fresh water has flooded the salty environment, sucked the water and choked the reef.

They will not prevent the polluted waters of cities like Houston during Hurricane Harvey. when about 149 million gallons of raw sewage and industrial wastes were dumped into nearby communities and waterways. In addition, about 100 companies, including Valero Energy, Exxon Mobil and Arkema, reported chemical spills

RELATED: Poor water quality after Harvey could hurt flower banks off of Texas

protections, if approved, could prevent the devastation of corals like the one that followed the Deepwater Horizon spill in April 2010, when an oil rig exploded and spilled about 4.3 million barrels of crude oil in the Gulf

. the wellhead sustained significant damage after the spill, while those further away appeared to suffer less damage. The researchers examined four coral sites from Alabama to Florida, which are part of the Pinnacle Trend Reef, between 2010 and 2014.

"The results indicate a very significant decline in the state at the sites closest to the wellhead ". . "Almost all of the injured colonies marked in 2011 declined, suggesting that coral recovery is unlikely."

Marine scientists were concerned that these protections were inadequate 20 years ago – a sanctuary designation can not stop climate change. Scientists are working to supplement these protections by growing and reproducing coral to ensure reefs are there for generations to come.

Monkeys Help Coral Research

The restoration of coral reefs in the Florida Keys began, oddly enough, with a group of monkeys and two islands that they have tried to consume.

and a troupe of rhesus monkeys – placed there 20 years earlier for medical research – had developed a taste for the red mangroves of the islands, which provide nursery areas and food for Florida's marine life. After the Asian monkeys had destroyed parts of the islands, federal officials ordered them to remove them and the mangrove population replenished.

Scientists have been successful in repelling the mangrove population by having it work in the laboratory in wood-filled, water-filled fireplaces. . And it is there that marine researchers had an idea:

And if this same method could be used for coral?

It turns out that this might be the case. Two decades later, the Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration program in Summerland Key, Florida, was considered a success, responsible for planting more than 35,000 corals on Florida's impoverished reef. Keys. The researchers collect broken pieces of coral from the bottom of the ocean and bring them back to the laboratory, where they slice the coral finely and super-stick these pieces to medium-sized concrete plugs. These plugs are then placed in water tanks at controlled temperature a few centimeters from one to the other.

And they wait.

Coral acts the same way as human skin when cut: to protect itself from external elements, said Allison Delashmit, spokesman for the Moore Center. Add to that the protection provided by a laboratory-controlled tank and the corals reach up to 50 times their normal rate, wrapping their slab and merging with those around them to build new colonies, she adds.

Brightly colored sponges live in harmony with corals and form an important part of the ecosystem. (P.P. Schmahl / Courtesy NOAA)

A coral colony that would take 40 years to develop in the wild takes less than two years to reach this size using this method. Once it reaches a healthy size, the center staff "plants" them on the local reefs – basically, they stick the concrete plugs a quarter of the way to the bottom of the dead reef, says Delashmit. The center no longer handles coral once it is in place, but most corals have performed well in the environment, many of them having even withstood the coral. Hurricane Irma last year

– a federally authorized animal rehabilitation facility that has been involved in conservation for decades – so much so that last year they started to work with the center on this initiative. Although they have not yet been planted in the wild, visitors to the aquarium can gain insight into the growth process of their coral exposure.

EDITORIAL: Yes, coral reefs thrive in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Aquarium officials intend to expand this project once its brand new rehabilitation facility is built. The authorities hope that the facility will be open as early as 2021.

The aquarium also plans to join the center's researchers in the reproductive coral, a process in which they collect eggs and sperm from nature and allow to fertilize and grow in a laboratory. The micro-fragmentation process acts only as a means of cloning coral, but replicating them allows more robust coral species to develop and, potentially, survive the changing temperatures of the ocean

. Jesse Gilbert, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Aquarium. "Our thought was that we could perfect that and move it forward, and God forbid anything to happen so we would be ready to act."

A popular sport fish, yellow-mouthed grouper, overhangs a thriving and healthy reef.

Coral experts warn that hope is not lost when it comes to the world's reefs.

People can reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by eating less meat, using less electricity and fewer kilometers. They can stop using a sunscreen that contains oxybenzone and octinoxate chemicals that help bleach corals – Hawaii has already banned the use of these chemicals. The very fact of washing clothes in cold water can limit carbon emissions.

Limiting the rise in global temperatures to less than 3.6 degrees Farhenheit, as stipulated in the Paris Climate Agreement, would also be useful. In fact, some experts say that's the only way to save the reefs. The Paris agreement was concluded in December 2015 to combat climate change and by 2018, 194 countries have ratified it, according to the United Nations.

"We are at the gates of a world without coral reefs and the only way to avoid this is through the full implementation of the Paris Agreement," he said. Inger Andersen, Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, last year. "We can not afford to lose these rich ecosystems that provide food, livelihoods and coastal protection to 500 million people around the world."

President Donald Trump withdrew the agreement in the United States. According to a Trump release of 2017.

Scientists still do not know if the agreement can be fully implemented without the United States, according to Scientific American.

But Gabby Ahmadia with World Wildlife According to the Fund, experts can continue to raise public awareness of the threats to reefs and force government action – such as that of Hawaii – to make a real spoils the problem of corals

"The situation is dramatic, but it's not too late."

And officials at the Moore Center in Summerland Key, Florida, also say that they are about to have a process easily replicable so that other organizations, like Jesse Gilbert with the Texas Aquarium said that facility managers have the intention to develop a farm of coral by opening their $ 20 million rehabilitation facility, with cash ready to be planted in the event of a sudden bleaching event or oil spill similar to Deepwater Horizon. .

This g "The plan for emergency is several years ahead," he added, but starting now will give them some leverage to move forward. what we think are the essential habitats of the ocean, "said Gilbert." We believe that conservation is important for coral, but these are very important ecosystems for sharks and other forms of ocean life. "

RACE AGAINST TIME: Saving coral reefs one coral at a time

was identified as a nursery area for manta rays. one of the very few places identified around the world. (Marissa Nuttall / NOAA Courtesy)

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Alex Stuckey joined the Chronicle as NASA's science and environment reporter in 2017. She is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize 2017 for her working at the Salt Lake Tribune on how Utah colleges deal with sexual assault.The same year she was named Livingston's finalist and, several years earlier, won a journalist and editor-in-chief award for a story re on drug seizure reports in Ohio. Kelly. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @alexdstuckey .

Photos courtesy of Banks National Marine Sanctuary Garden Banks

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