During the experiments, the animals shut down parts of themselves when undergoing
the stress of ocean acidification, redirecting their energy to new growth.
Add in
the stress of ocean acidification and protecting coral reefs becomes even more important (and challenging).
Not exact matches
Scientists have been warning that decreasing amounts
of available oxygen will increase
stress on a range
of species, even as they also face the effects
of rising temperatures and
ocean acidification.
Unpublished work by Gates, led by the University
of Hawaii's Hollie Putnam, shows that adult cauliflower corals (Pocillopora damicornis) exposed to
stress during brooding produce larvae with increased resilience to heat and
ocean acidification.
That's the conclusion
of a new study that used measurements
of an array
of human pressures on the
ocean — from
acidification to overfishing — to make a map
of where those factors combined into
stressed - out hotspots, as well as how the combinations
of stressors had changed over time.
A reduction
of regional
stress such as nutrient runoff or the loss
of oxygen can mitigate the impact
of global stressors like
ocean acidification and warming.
Coral reefs are under
stress for several reasons, including warming
of the
ocean, but especially because
of ocean acidification, a direct effect
of added carbon dioxide.
Corals and other species that depend upon them are also highly vulnerable due to the combined effects
of warming
ocean water,
ocean acidification, and other human - caused
stresses.
Joeri Rogelj from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science and a lead researcher
of the report, said: «
Ocean acidification due to increased atmospheric concentrations
of carbon dioxide... will put increasing
stress onto marine eco-systems.
Other sources
of stress such as nutrient runoff, sedimentation, overfishing, and
ocean acidification appear to interact with heat
stress to change the bleaching threshold [11], [18], [24], [25].
The discussion in the article and my comment, regarding mass coral bleaching and mortality, is about thermal
stress /
ocean heat, not
acidification (only incidentally related in terms
of possible impact on regrowth).
Selina Ward studies the early life history stages
of corals and the responses
of reproduction and recruitment to environmental
stresses such as temperature change,
ocean acidification, elevated nutrients and Trichodesmium.
What I concluded is that in the vicinity
of human habitation (e.g., occupied coral atolls), other human excesses are currently a source
of greater harm than
ocean acidification (or heat
stress, which is as a separate issue).
Coral reefs are threatened by rising water temperatures,
ocean acidification, and sea - level rise.3, 5 Coral reefs typically live within a specific range
of temperature, light, and concentration
of carbonate in seawater.6 When increases in
ocean temperature or ultraviolet light
stress the corals, they lose their colorful algae, leaving only transparent coral tissue covering their white calcium - carbonate skeletons.6 This phenomenon is called coral bleaching.
-- Life in the
oceans are under severe
stress and 90 %
of the big fish biomass is already fished out, plus
ocean acidification is occurring which threatens entire bio webs.