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International Year of the Reef 2008

The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. All individuals, corporations, schools, governments, and organizations are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in IYOR 2008.

http://www.iyor.org/

SCIENCE 318 (5857): 1737-1742 DEC 14 2007

Title: Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification

Abstract: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2 degrees C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved. Under conditions expected in the 21st century, global warming and ocean acidification will compromise carbonate accretion, with corals becoming increasingly rare on reef systems. The result will be less diverse reef communities and carbonate reef structures that fail to be maintained. Climate change also exacerbates local stresses from declining water quality and overexploitation of key species, driving reefs increasingly toward the tipping point for functional collapse. This review presents future scenarios for coral reefs that predict increasingly serious consequences for reef-associated fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, and people. As the International Year of the Reef 2008 begins, scaled- up management intervention and decisive action on global emissions are required if the loss of coral-dominated ecosystems is to be avoided.

I have more and this link.

Contact: Burke Hales
bhalesatcoas.oregonstate.edu
541-737-8121 / Oregon State University

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080522181511.htm
U.S. Pacific Coast Waters Turning More Acidic
ScienceDaily (May 23, 2008) — An international team of scientists surveying the waters of the continental shelf off the West Coast of North America has discovered for the first time high levels of acidified ocean water within 20 miles of the shoreline, raising concern for marine ecosystems from Canada to Mexico.
"When the upwelled water was last at the surface, it was exposed to an atmosphere with much lower CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels than today's," pointed out Burke Hales, an associate professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and an author on the Science study. "The water that will upwell off the coast in future years already is making its undersea trek toward us, with ever-increasing levels of carbon dioxide and acidity.

Scientists have become increasingly concerned about ocean acidification in recent years, as the world's oceans absorb growing levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When that CO2 mixes into the ocean water, it forms carbonic acid that has a corrosive effect on aragonite -- the calcium carbonate mineral that forms the shells of many marine creatures.
The research team used OSU's R/V Wecoma to sample water off the coast from British Columbia to Mexico. The researchers found that the 50-year-old upwelled water had CO2 levels of 900 to 1,000 parts per million, making it "right on the edge of solubility" for calcium carbonate-shelled aragonites, Hales said.
"The coastal ocean acidification train has left the station," Hales added, "and there not much we can do to derail it."

...Debbie Downer strikes again. ...mmwwaaa, mwaaaa.