Two stories today about the conditions of the oceans indicate the importance of more research and more thought in how to protect what we have. Most ecological news is dismal, and this is no exception, but the capacity of humankind to formulate solutions to tough problems is not diminished by global warming or the pressure of difficulties.
======from National Geographic:
A Third of Reef-Building Corals at Risk of Extinction
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
July 10, 2008
A third of the world's major reef-building coral species are in danger of extinction, an international team of scientists warns in a study published today.
Because coral reefs are home to more than a quarter of all marine species, their loss could be devastating for biodiversity in the world's oceans.
"If corals themselves are at risk of extinction and do in fact go extinct, that will most probably lead to a cascade effect where we will lose thousands and thousands of other species that depend on coral reefs," said the study's lead author Kent Carpenter, a zoologist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
from ScienceNOW
Warming Spells Trouble for Fish
By Christopher Pala
ScienceNOW Daily News
10 July 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--Global warming of the oceans will likely cause the extinction by 2050 of dozens of fish species that cannot migrate to colder waters, according to a study presented here yesterday at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium. "The loss of biodiversity will be considerable, and replacing them with new species would take millions of years," says co-author Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada,
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