The BBC is reporting on some experiments being run at a “coral lab” at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science at Eilat in Israel. They are cultivating corals in the Red Sea and then taking them to the institute to research into the effects of acidification.
The oceans are slightly alkaline, with a pH of 8.1 (pre-1750 average was 8.2). But they are becoming more acidic as more CO2 is absorbed into them. The tests being done here have taken that pH down to 7.9, and then to 7.6. Current estimates are that the world’s oceans will reach 7.9 by the end of the century, so these exeperiments are looking at situations significantly worse than expected, which makes them controversial. Dr. Maoz Fine, who is carrying them out, defends this by arguing that we need to find out as soon as possible how different corals react by pusing their physiology to the extreme.
Current findings look like bad news for slow-growing corals which form the bedrock of coral reefs. But they are also showing problems for a type of pink algae that helps glue the reefs together, which implies that reefs may start to crumble as ocean acifidication increases.
Tom Goreau from the Global Coral Reef Alliance takes another view and feels that the increase in direct surface temperature as a result of global warming is a larger and far more immediate problem.Recent bleaching episodes around the world would tend to bear this out.
Either way, something needs to be done to reduce the impact as soon as possible.
If you’re interested, I’d recommend reading this article from the BBC’s website.
