These invasive species are wreaking havoc on reefs and the fish that live amongst the coral.

A new study finds Hawaii is home to "super corals" that were nearly destroyed 30 years ago but have rebounded despite warmer, more acidic water.

Since the threats to coral reefs vary depending on location, scientists are customizing solutions to help them survive.

'Coral Colors' showcases the psychedelic beauty of marine invertebrates.

Bleached corals are akin to dead canaries in a coal mine — a warning of what's to come if we don't address the threat of climate change.

Climate change is forcing tropical fish to migrate, and they threaten to mow down their new terrain.

Australian diving tour companies are working with scientists to restore the coral reefs.

A process known as "coral bleaching" has triggered near-record rates of death and dormancy in coral reefs. At least 19 percent of Earth's coral reefs are dead.

Lynn, Coralyn Sep 4, 1930 - May 2, 2020 Coralyn Lynn, 89, of Sarasota, Florida, died on May 2, 2020. Funeral arrangements by: Your .....

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “This is a wake-up call,” says one Australian marine biologist. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” Delivering yet another “wake-up call” after recent studies have shown that … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “This is a wake-up call,” says one Australian marine biologist. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” Delivering yet another “wake-up call” after recent studies have shown that … Continue reading →

A scientific research vessel off the Queensland coast is surveying the "very unexplored" depths of Australia's largest marine park without a single scientist on board.

A monitoring program to survey bleaching is underway at Lord Howe Island Marine Park with researchers performing underwater assessments and aerial mapping.

A team of citizen scientists join in the effort to restore the balance in inshore reefs and save threatened corals by clearing them of choking algae and seeding them with coral larvae.

From humble beginnings, Dan Kimberley has developed the Northern Territory's first coral and fish export business.

The Great Barrier Reef has already been devastated by climate change, but one southern island is showing signs of recovery after cyclone damage

It's largely unknown what seabirds and marine mammals do when they are out in Australia's remote waters, but an ongoing project aboard at 94-metre floating laboratory is changing that.

Plus more ways to support comics creators and new authors launching their books worldwide while social distancing!

The post Social Distancing Roundup: JOHN WICK Livestream, Neil Gaiman reads CORALINE, and an X-MEN ’92 watchalong appeared first on The Beat.

The Florida Aquarium announced a breakthrough that may help save America's Great Barrier Reef. Scientists at the Tampa-based aquarium have successfully reproduced ridged cactus coral for the first time. A video captures the tiny baby corals looking like undersea fairy lights as they take their first and only swim beyond the reef.[...]

A recent study found that coral reefs will face severe challenges even if average global warming temperature rise is restricted to 2 degrees Celsius. This is a rise that most countries are struggling to negotiate and meet. But reefs are very sensitive to temperature changes, experts fear the window of opportunity to prevent massive reef loss is very small.

Read full article: Nature and Animal Conservation

(Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) Oil pollution is known to cause lethal and sublethal responses on coral communities in the short-term, but its long-term effects have not been widely studied. The Bahia Las Minas oil spill, which contaminated about 40 square kilometers (about 15 square miles) near the Smithsonian's Galeta Point Marine Laboratory in Colon and became the largest recorded near coastal habitats in Panama, served as an opportunity to understand how coral reefs in tropical ecosystems recover from acute contamination over time.

As part of the College's move to remote learning, 143 first-year students are taking a series of virtual field courses to investigate biodiversity.

Hicks (Family)

Chinese researchers have found that microplastics were widespread in surface waters around the uninhabited coral reefs of the Nansha Islands.

Not only are deep-sea coral ecosystems thriving on oil and gas rigs in the North Sea, their larvae may be helping repopulate damaged natural reefs

ABSTRACT

Host-associated microbial communities are shaped by extrinsic and intrinsic factors to the holobiont organism. Environmental factors and microbe-microbe interactions act simultaneously on the microbial community structure, making the microbiome dynamics challenging to predict. The coral microbiome is essential to the health of coral reefs and sensitive to environmental changes. Here, we develop a dynamic model to determine the microbial community structure associated with the surface mucus layer (SML) of corals using temperature as an extrinsic factor and microbial network as an intrinsic factor. The model was validated by comparing the predicted relative abundances of microbial taxa to the relative abundances of microbial taxa from the sample data. The SML microbiome from Pseudodiploria strigosa was collected across reef zones in Bermuda, where inner and outer reefs are exposed to distinct thermal profiles. A shotgun metagenomics approach was used to describe the taxonomic composition and the microbial network of the coral SML microbiome. By simulating the annual temperature fluctuations at each reef zone, the model output is statistically identical to the observed data. The model was further applied to six scenarios that combined different profiles of temperature and microbial network to investigate the influence of each of these two factors on the model accuracy. The SML microbiome was best predicted by model scenarios with the temperature profile that was closest to the local thermal environment, regardless of the microbial network profile. Our model shows that the SML microbiome of P. strigosa in Bermuda is primarily structured by seasonal fluctuations in temperature at a reef scale, while the microbial network is a secondary driver.

IMPORTANCE Coral microbiome dysbiosis (i.e., shifts in the microbial community structure or complete loss of microbial symbionts) caused by environmental changes is a key player in the decline of coral health worldwide. Multiple factors in the water column and the surrounding biological community influence the dynamics of the coral microbiome. However, by including only temperature as an external factor, our model proved to be successful in describing the microbial community associated with the surface mucus layer (SML) of the coral P. strigosa. The dynamic model developed and validated in this study is a potential tool to predict the coral microbiome under different temperature conditions.

Peter J. Edmunds and Scott C. Burgess

Experiments with coral fragments (i.e. nubbins) have shown that net calcification is depressed by elevated P_CO2. Evaluating the implications of this finding requires scaling of results from nubbins to colonies, yet the experiments to codify this process have not been carried out. Building from our previous research demonstrating that net calcification of Pocillopora verrucosa (2–13 cm diameter) was unaffected by P_CO2 (400 and 1000 µatm) and temperature (26.5 and 29.7°C), we sought generality to this outcome by testing how colony size modulates P_CO2 and temperature sensitivity in a branching acroporid. Together, these taxa represent two of the dominant lineages of branching corals on Indo-Pacific coral reefs. Two trials conducted over 2 years tested the hypothesis that the seasonal range in seawater temperature (26.5 and 29.2°C) and a future P_CO2 (1062 µatm versus an ambient level of 461 µatm) affect net calcification of an ecologically relevant size range (5–20 cm diameter) of colonies of Acropora hyacinthus. As for P. verrucosa, the effects of temperature and P_CO2 on net calcification (mg day^–1) of A. verrucosa were not statistically detectable. These results support the generality of a null outcome on net calcification of exposing intact colonies of branching corals to environmental conditions contrasting seasonal variation in temperature and predicted future variation in P_CO2. While there is a need to expand beyond an experimental culture relying on coral nubbins as tractable replicates, rigorously responding to this need poses substantial ethical and logistical challenges.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, was arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on a nine count indictment charging him with three felony counts of smuggling protected coral into the United States port of Portland, Ore., three felony counts of violating the Lacey Act and three misdemeanor charges of violating the Endangered Species Act.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, pleaded guilty today before District Judge Anna J. Brown, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, to one count of smuggling coral into the United States at the port of Portland, Ore.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, was sentenced today to serve three years on probation and pay a criminal penalty of over $35,000 by Judge Anna J. Brown of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon for smuggling coral into the Port of Portland, Ore.

Gloria Chu and Ivan Chu of Taipei, Taiwan, each pleaded guilty to nine counts including conspiracy, false statements, and violations of both the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act.

Two Taiwanese nationals were sentenced to prison today in federal court in the U.S. Virgin Islands for conspiracy to ship internationally protected black coral into the United States in violation of federal wildlife statutes.

On July 15, 2011, GEM Manufacturing LLC, headquartered in St. Thomas, pleaded guilty to seven counts of violations of both the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act.

Ashu Bhandari, the former president and CEO of GEM Manufacturing LLC, a U.S. Virgin Islands-based company, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., for felony customs violations for his role in a scheme to illegally import protected black coral into the United States.

The coral is composed of many small polyps and forms large colonies approximately 2 metres across. The polyp skeleton is a dusky pink colour.

One scientist speaks about how the knee-jerk reaction to "save the corals" needs to deepen into a real love for these fascinating creatures.

The Florida legislation will go into effect in 2021 in an effort to protect the world’s third-largest barrier reef ecosystem.

Our photo of the day comes from the waters off Sydney, Australia.

It was already bad enough that a Chinese boat crashed into the Tubbataha reef, a protected coral reef off the coast of the Philippines, but what the coast guard found inside increased massively the size of the environmental disaster.

The new species endemic to the marine protected area expanded by Obama was named in honor of his efforts to protect and preserve the natural environment.

When sunscreen chemicals wash off beach-goers, they bleach coral, stunt its growth, and sometimes kill it outright.

Many sunscreens contain chemicals that are devastating to sensitive coral and other marine life.