Article on Algae and Reefs

[Guest Larry-T]

There is a fascinating article concerning algae-dominated reefs in the current issue of American Scientist. The magazine is on the newsstand. In the article they also differentiate between macroalgae, coraline algae, and turf algae.

 

Abstract:

Most people now recognize that coral reefs worldwide are in decline, and fingers are commonly pointed at algae as the culprit. The authors have had the good fortune to study pristine reefs at more than 50 uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean. Although unaffected by human activity, these reefs show considerable variety in their percentage of coral versus algal cover, with some being dominated by various species of algae. It has thus become clear that, although algae may pose a problem in some situations, these plants are an essential part of nearly every healthy reef system.

[OUsnakebyte]

Jen and I just got back from a class that we took through George Mason where we spent a week on a live-aboard in the Bahamas. The class was called Coral Reef Ecology, and there were several different components. We had (got to...) to learn about 130 species of Caribbean/Atlantic reef fish, we did some Diadema translocation, some "reef cleanup," and our own independent project.

 

For the reef cleanup, we actually took big nets down with us on some very damaged reefs and scooped up all the algae that we could in about 50 minutes. Jen's and my project was actually trying to estimate health of the reef, using two different methods, by looking at coral versus algal coverage. We visited about 15 different sites total. The network/turf algae is really amazing how it can cover and smother corals in almost no time at all... Of couse I photo-documented the entire trip, I just have not had time to post on it yet.

 

Anyway, thanks for posting this Larry - I'll look for this issue.

 

Cheers

Mike

[dhoch]

Just FYI you guys (if you are interested should look at the headlines on our home page) left hand side reefs in the news... those are from news feeds from a number of different sites, and are updated by those sites fairly frequently.

 

Dave