Record sea water temperatures killed more than three-quarters of the man-grown coral that scientists had placed in the florida keys in recent years in an attempt to keep a threatened species highly vulnerable to climate change, researchers discovered.
Researchers of the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) They returned this week to five reefs where they had planted staghorn and elkhorn coral, both listed as threatened on the endangered species list, to see how they had responded to continued high water temperatures. above 90 degrees Fahrenheitduring last summer and fall. Most did not survive.
Besides, observed widespread deaths in both stocked and wild corals on five reefs in the Keys.
Scientists blame man-made climate change, with the push of the natural phenomenon El Niño, to make the water too warm for the delicate corals, which are animals, to survive. After trying to rescue corals last hot summer, This was the scientists' first winter dive to check what had survived.
Only 22% of the 1,500 repopulated staghorn corals they examined were still alive, indicated NOAA. In the case of elkhorn coral, only 5% of the 1,000 placed were still alive. On Looe Key, the northernmost of the reefs surveyed, “we did not find any live staghorn or elkcrow corals, either wild or planted,” said coral biologist Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator for Mission Reefs. Agency icons.
“It's really horrible to witness this.”Lesneski said in an interview just two days after the end of the dives. “In addition to thinking about the economic and ecological benefits that reefs and these corals provide, there is the loss of the intrinsic beauty that many people come to see and experience in the keys. And coming to terms with the loss of that is also very disturbing.”
“Much data remains to be collected to truly understand the full impactLesneski noted, “But we certainly haven't seen anything like this in the records of human history.”
They are normally corals of intense red, yellow, tan and brown colors. But what Lesneski and other researchers saw on their dives were dead corals with greenish-brown algae ensconced in their lifeless skeleton, giving them a “pretty drab” appearance, he added.
Not only are staghorn and elkhorn coral populations declining so much that they are in danger of extinction, but they are also They are crucial to a vast community of different types of coral because they form the framework that serves as a “structural framework” for the coral habitat.or, Lesneski noted.