Sea Monster

Search results for: “climate change and marine communities”

  • Consensus statement on climate change and coral reefs

    This comes from the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, meeting in Cairns this week. I think the statement is largely accurate, although it exaggerates threats to corals from local factors like fishing and pollution.  The second phrase of the final sentence (in bold) is demonstrably false; “A concerted effort to preserve reefs for the future…

  • Sea level rise, one more frontier for climate dialogue controversy

    Below is a repost of a piece by my UNC colleague Sarah Peach from the Yale Forum. It provides a bit of context about the struggles among scientists, developers, policy makers, and communities over formulating plans for dealing with climate change and sea level rise in a state blessed with so much wonderful shoreline.  …

  • Impacts of biodiversity loss rival those of climate change and pollution

    Current estimates suggest we are now, or soon will be, in the grip of earth’s sixth mass extinction of species. This is of course a tragedy in many ways—but will it really affect us in any substantial way? With the thundering hooves of all the other apocalyptic horsemen bearing down on us—global warming heating, hypoxic…

  • Marine parks are fishy

    Ray Hilborn and I don’t agree on much. But apparently, we do agree that “Marine parks are fishy”, in Ray’s words, or that they “suck” in mine. Or at least that is what I recently told an audience at the Benthic Ecology Meeting (more on this soon). No, no. I love the concept of Marine…

  • Interview with Nancy Knowlton about marine biodiversity and climate change

    There is a nice interview with Nancy Knowlton in Yale Environment 360, excerpted below: e360: Much of your earlier research was done in the Caribbean, in Jamaica. What was the state of the coral reefs in that part of the world at the time? And what kind of changes physically have you seen in recent decades? Knowlton: You…

  • Breaking News: Marine reserves don’t work (well enough)

    Marine reserves won’t save the oceans. Not now. Maybe never. So say Camilo Mora and Peter F. Sale in their paper published today. If they’re right, and if people listen, it’s going to stir things up big-time in the conservation world.                     Nature reserves, parks, protected…

  • Forum on fish, food, and people

    Editor’s note: The following discussion, which more than one participant called “extraordinary”, began after  Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington published an op-ed “Let us eat fish” in the New York Times on 14 April 2011, and  John Bruno of the University of North Carolina (and my Co-Editor at SeaMonster) replied here at SeaMonster.…

  • Ocean warming caused most Caribbean coral loss: a review of the evidence

    Ocean warming caused most Caribbean coral loss: a review of the evidence

      Coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined precipitously over the last few decades, e.g.; Gardner et al. 2003 (Science PDF here): and Schutte et al. 2010 (MEPS PDF here): Also see Hughes 1994, Cote et al. 2005, and Jackson et al 2014. There is substantial evidence that human-caused ocean warming is the primary cause of this loss of reef-building…

  • Response to Avigdor Abelson

    The graphics below are to supplement our response to the criticisms of Avigdor Abelson about our recent paper in Scientific Reports.

  • Threatened staghorn coral invades Fort Lauderdale!

    Last week I was visiting FIU and talking with Lionfish guru Zack Judd when the topic of the Acropora range shift came up.  He and Laura Bhatti wanted to take me to do something fun on my last day in Miami.  So we decided on snorkeling off the beach on the world famous Fort Lauderdale strip…