Perhaps corals can adapt to ocean acidification

[sen5241b]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBQjV7ZbHw4&feature=youtu.be

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Origami
embedded the video

[Origami]

Nice. Thanks for sharing the link.

 

I wish they had told us more about the actual pH that they were measuring in these areas. As hobbyists, we routinely see a high level of tolerance to pH variance in many of the coral species that we keep. Our tanks can routinely fluctuate 0.1 to 0.25 pH units in the course of a day or across several days and, of course, can run at very different pH levels than another person's tank. The same holds true for temperature variation. However, we also see that a lot of wild and even maricultured corals have lower survival rates in many tanks, so something's up. This short term study offers some hope but it needs to be supplemented with long term observation to reveal any subtle changes whose impacts aren't observable in the short term. 

 

Neat stuff, though. Kind of makes you want to don some scuba gear and volunteer to help.

[sen5241b]

People good with acropora have all told me that parms (light, cal, mag, ph, temp ...) can all be sub-optimal but a lack of stability will kill or make sick your corals. A big question is does climate change cause swings in Ph and temperature on coral reefs?

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

People good with acropora have all told me that parms (light, cal, mag, ph, temp ...) can all be sub-optimal but a lack of stability will kill or make sick your corals. A big question is does climate change cause swings in Ph and temperature on coral reefs?

 

The answer is, yes.   

 

Last time I was in Hawaii in July, this was obvious in many places.  One area in particular (Kapoho Tide Pools - yes I know not a reef haha), we had huge (as in like 5 foot long) Montiporas.  But many of them had massive bleached areas; even there it was clear that it wasn't because there wasn't too much sun, it had to be some sort of external influence.  

 

A professor at UH-Hilo stated it was due to El Nino events over the past few years: for many years temperature was fairly steady, but an El Nino even raised temperatures enough for a long enough time in the summer that any monti that had decent sun exposure was at least 50% bleached.  (oddly enough, the darkest monti was in a relatively shaded and high flow area.  Almost 6ft in diameter)

 

UH-Hilo has a website which compares bleaching rates there; if people want I can go through my email and dig it up.