when #ecosystems thrive, they protect us—absorbing #floods, softening #heatwaves, keeping #disease in check. #forests, #wetlands, #reefs, and #grasslands act as nature’s safety net, holding everything in #balance. but when we destroy them, we unravel the very systems keeping us alive.
by protecting #nature, we protect ourselves. every #tree, every #river, every #species is part of the web that holds our world together. if we want a future, we have to fight for it.
Shipwrecks host more diverse fish assemblages compared with natural coral reefs off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital.
Research shows that shipwrecks provide more complex structures with various microhabitats, attracting fish and offering both food and safety, making them more appealing than coral reefs.
By Malaka Rodrigo
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/sunken-ships-in-sri-lankas-colombo-attract-more-fish-than-coral-reefs/
#BIMSWeek2024 goers be sure to check out @niasymwalker & @LysIsma et al’s
ICB paper
The Young and the Resilient: Investigating #Coral #Thermal #Resilience in Early Life Stages
Walker, Isma , García, True, Walker, & Watkins
#Biden-#Harris Administration, #NOAA designate 3rd-largest national marine sanctuary
https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/biden-harris-administration-noaa-designate-3rd-largest-national-marine-sanctuary
"#Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (including #KelpForests, rocky #reefs, sandy beaches, underwater mountains and more than 200 #shipwrecks) to be managed with #tribal, #Indigenous community involvement... With this designation, the administration has now conserved more than 45 million acres of lands and waters."
Sea urchins: A surprising delicacy for sharks https://phys.org/news/2024-10-sea-urchins-delicacy-sharks.html paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2024.1418506/full
"#Lobsters are widely accepted as the key predator of #SeaUrchins, and this information has informed management strategies to control exploding #SeaUrchin numbers that threaten temperate #reefs... In a new study, a camera was set up in a #lobster den and sea urchins were strategically placed in it. Surprisingly, the majority of the sea urchins were eaten—not by lobsters—but by #sharks."
Europe’s exhausted #OysterReefs once covered area size of Northern Ireland https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/03/europe-oyster-reefs-study
"There are a handful of remnant #reefs in a few parts of Europe, including the coast of #Brittany and the west coasts of #Ireland and #Scotland. But these are at most a few square metres in extent, as opposed to square kilometres in the past. The ecological functions these reefs used to provide no longer exist... They created rich ecosystems, providing a habitat for almost 200 species"
#Sharks deserting #coralreefs as #oceans heat up, study shows
#ClimateCrisis is driving key predators from their homes and threatening an already embattled ecosystem
This is likely to harm the sharks, which are already #endangered, and their absence could have serious consequences for the #reefs, which are also struggling. The reef sharks are a key part of the highly diverse and delicate #ecosystem, which could become dangerously unbalanced without them.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/09/sharks-deserting-coral-reefs-climate-crisis-heating-oceans-study
The militia fleets conduct intrusive journeys through foreign #ExclusiveEconomicZones, blockade disputed #reefs and #islands, and have repeatedly rammed or used #WaterCannon on other vessels in dangerous manoeuvres, including against the #USNavy. #SouthChinaSea #WestPHSea #Philippines
#China’s maritime militia: the shadowy armada whose existence #Beijing rarely acknowledges
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/13/china-maritime-militia-explainer-south-china-sea-scarborough-shoal
April 2024: "NOAA confirms 4th global coral bleaching event " https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-confirms-4th-global-coral-bleaching-event #coral #reefs #climate #ssts
Human-made infrastructures usually end up in the ocean as trash. But, not all of it. Sometimes, ships, planes and otherwise unuseful big chunks of metal structures, are strategically placed in the bottom of the ocean to create artificial reefs.
As it turns out, they offer quite a helpful environment for large predatory fish, and allows for habitat optimization.
#OffshoreWind to the rescue!
"The turbines’ seabed foundations, bolstered by rock piles around the masts, function as artificial #reefs upon which flora and #crustacea thrive, which then are consumed by #fish, #porpoises, and #seals.
Marine scientists have found that these #RenewableEnergy parks can serve as sprawling #MarineSanctuaries, some of them as vast as 80 square kilometers (31 square miles) in size."
As the coral reefs continue to bleach and otherwise fall apart due to warming and acidifying oceans, more and more scientists are trying to research ways to save them by understanding how they function.
American and Australian scientists using CRISPR-induced gene knockouts have identified a gene in stony coral responsible for growth of the solid coral through bicarbonate transport.
#Coral #Reefs #climatechange #CRISPR #Science #Biology #Biotech #Biotechnology #Scicomm
"We are entirely connected with #nature and, in turn, the #reef...Every action, every decision we make has an impact on the #environment around us...if you take positive [actions] to reduce your #carbon #emission, this in turn will have a really positive effect on #reefs around the #world...each of us individually are connected and...if we work together, we can have really large and positive impacts."
(#corporations #pollute because WE make that #profitable)
Alarm as seawater heats up off Florida Keys, imperiling reef
Super-heated seawater off the Florida Keys has grown so perilous to the world's third-largest barrier reef that scientists are now removing samples of coral from ocean nurseries to place in cooler land-based tanks.
time for my #introduction. I am a marine ecologist originally from Spain but have spent almost 1/2 my life in Ireland and the UK. Research on #kelp #bivalves #seagrass and biogenic habitats #reefs in general. Passion are horse mussels! Working hard on their conservation and restoration using nature-based solutions like aquaculture. I am a lecturer at ATU Galway #rstats, #GIS #ecology and mentor research students on projects with a lot of fieldwork in the wet, windy & wonderful Irish coast.
