Disturbed coral reefs

coral looters, today is climate change. What is certain is that if coral reefs, global biodiversity hotspots and economic drivers of many countries, are in constant decline, the direct or indirect fault is always ours and in particular of the constant increase in temperature at which man is subjecting the Planet. If the rise in temperatures and the acidification of the seas continue at this rate, by 2054 the corals will no longer be able to produce their calcium carbonate skeleton and could begin to dissolve. The news is not new, but two studies published this summer in Communications & Environment and Scientific Reports explain well why we are very close to a point of no return given that since 1970 the rate of growth and calcification of coral reefs it has decreased by an average of 4.3% each year, while world coral cover has decreased by an average of 1.8% annually.

On Communications & Environment, scientists from Southern Cross University examined 53 previously published studies, analyzing the growth and calcification rates of 36 coral reef locations, located in 11 countries around the world. Among these could not miss the Australian Great Barrier Reef, but also the Reef Shiraho in Japan, the reefs of several islands of Hawaii, Florida, the state of Palau, French Polynesia, the islands of the Philippines and even the Red Sea. Scientists have documented the death of many corals in all these habitats: when the water temperature is too high, in fact, the corals expel their symbiont algae and the so-called “coral bleaching” occurs and the coral loses with its color also the ability to feed. It therefore remains a simple scaffolding of calcium carbonate. With the acidification of the seas, however, the calcareous skeletons of the coral grow much more slowly due to the lack of calcium carbonate. Large quantities of carbon dioxide produced by anthropogenic activities and absorbed by the sea react with the water forming carbonic acid, which in turn reacts with calcium carbonate, which is then removed from the corals. If the CO2 level in the atmosphere were to reach 500 parts per million (ppm), calcification of coral skeletons would become impossible.

This is why the warming and acidification of the seas and oceans are the deadly traps for coral reefs which, unlike many animals such as fish and marine mammals, cannot try to move to colder waters to escape the heat. According to the researchers who worked for Scientific Reports, some reefs are slowly trying to gain a few degrees of longitude, albeit with little success. According to new findings from the Florida Institute of Technology and the US Geological Survey, Florida’s coral reefs will not be able to make this migration to higher latitudes because they are blocked by the increasingly frequent cold waves coming from the north. This ecosystem is therefore trapped in tropical waters, forced to “boil” in an increasingly warm sea. Today in Florida only 2% of the original coral reef remains, the rest has already been lost due to climate change and pollution. Like other coastal areas without coral reefs, Florida will be increasingly exposed to waves, tropical storms and hurricanes, losing approximately $ 4.4 billion from tourism and fishing activities, as well as 70,000 jobs over the next few decades.

While the alarm comes from the USA, from Australia comes a timid hope. According to the latest report from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), an independent agency headed by the Canberra government, scientists have observed a repopulation of Acropora corals in the Great Barrier Reef over the past year. A real regrowth within the largest coral system in the world, recorded in practically all its regions. However, the Acropora corals that the Great Barrier is repopulating are as quick to grow as they are to leave. The latest Aims report, in fact, explains that since 2009 the Barrier has been hit by 17 cyclones, 3 mass bleaching events and a wave of sea stars called “crown of thorns” which feed on large quantities of corals. For this reason, according to UNESCO, “The Great Barrier Reef is in danger”, together with its 400 types of coral, as well as 1,500 different species of fish and 4,000 varieties of molluscs. Australia has challenged the recent decision of the United Nations to include the Great Barrier – the largest coral system in the world (larger than Italy) – in the list of World Heritage in Danger. Battleground of these months

is the draft on the status of some places declared World Heritage Sites and the request to the Australian Government for “stronger and clearer” commitments to protect the state of the Great Barrier Reef, included in the world heritage since 1981 and now increasingly threatened by climate change . In particular, Unesco calls for the “improvement of water quality” at the local level.

While according to many Australian environmental organizations, the UN recommendation denounces the unwillingness of the Canberra government to reduce emissions responsible for the greenhouse effect, for Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley if “global climate change is the greatest threat to the world’s coral reefs, it is wrong, in our opinion, to include the world’s best-managed Great Barrier Reef on a list of endangered sites ”. So while politics discusses less evident stamped papers and ecological sensitivities, the planet’s coral reefs seem increasingly disturbed by this anthropic background buzz that for the moment has not yet put an end to their sufferings.

I am Alessandro, since 1975 “I am” and “I go” like many others, but currently “I am”. Publicist, member of the Order of Journalists since 2009 and editor-in-chief for the Unimondo.org portal since 2010, for years I went from Trento to Bologna, university commuter, up to a degree in contemporary history and from Trento to Rovereto, always a / r, where I learned the theory of development cooperation and communication with the courses of the University of Peace and Peoples. Recidivist I replied with a diploma in communication and development of the VIS between Trento and Rome. In between, some experience of international cooperation and numerous flights to Latin America. Now reluctantly sedentary I travel my mind waiting for the holidays to get the rest of me moving. Always struggling with my ecological footprint, if I can I go on foot (preferably in a hurry), I wear Patagonia, “I don’t eat anything that has parents”, I read and write like many people especially about the environment, animals, rights, duties and “presumed sustainability. ”One morning in May 2015 I was presented with the national journalism award of the Italian Federation of Blood Donor Associations“ Isabella Sturvi ”aimed at promoting social journalism.