Global warming identified as main threat to coral reefs

Decline of coral reefs during late Paleocene to early Eocene global warming

US signals threat to global warming icon

The US government last month made one of its most significant concessions to date on the dangers of global warming, proposing protection for the polar bear, whose habitat is threatened by the melting Arctic sea ice. The recommendation by the interior secretary, Dick Kempthorne, that the bears be added to the list of threatened species, marks a reversal by the administration from its reluctance ...

Rapid Recent Warming of Coral Reefs in the Florida Keys

Coral reef decline in the Florida Keys has been well-publicized, controversial, and polarizing owing to debate over the causative agent being climate change versus overfishing. The recurrence of mass bleaching in 2014, the sixth event since 1987, prompted a reanalysis of temperature data. The summer and winter of 2014 were the warmest on record. The oldest known in-situ temperature record of an...

In Hot Water: Global Warming Takes a Toll on Coral Reefs

I n the summer of 2005, while Atlantic hurricanes battered coastlines from Cuba to Mexico, the Eastern Caribbean baked under a relentless sun with barely a breeze to cool the air. Tourists and locals alike wilted in the heat, and below the sea, marine life and corals in particular suffered as well. The windless calm settled in just as a buildup of unusually warm water began accumulating in the ...

Global warming and coral reefs: Modelling the effect of temperature on Acropora palmata colony growth

Data on colony growth of the branching coral Acropora palmata from fringing reefs off Discovery Bay on the north coast of Jamaica have been obtained over the period 2002-2007 using underwater photography and image analysis by both SCUBA and remotely using an ROV incorporating twin lasers. Growth modelling shows that while logarithmic growth is an approximate model for growth, a 3:3 rational pol...