Earthsky Interviews
Private: Scientists assess health of U.S. coral reefs
December 26, 2005 - Water
_JB:_ One hundred sixty scientists helped in this first-ever attempt to pull together monitoring data, with the goal of providing a status report on U.S. coral reef ecosystems.
_Jeannette Waddell:_ …We looked at three basic groupings of data. Water quality parameters, benthic habitat parameters ? and those are basically the sea floor community, the benthos ? and the associated biological communities, which are the fish, all of the invertebrates, and the things that move around within the coral reef ecosystem.
_DB:_ The assessment showed that, while coral reefs have always been fragile, today many are being overwhelmed.
_Jeannette Waddell:_ The big issue here is the resilience of coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs have always experienced natural stressors such as tropical storms and some degree of sedimentation… But now, because they’re facing so many challenges and so many stressors, the resilience of reefs that allows them to bounce back after some of these threats, they’re just not able to bounce back the way they have in the past….
_JB:_ We have more about coral, including “links”:http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2526.htm to the coral report, at earthsky.org. Special thanks today to “NOAA”:http://www.noaa.gov, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
Waddell pointed out that coral reefs have always been fragile, and there have always been threats. Some are natural threats such as tropical storms. And some are human threats brought in part by increased development along coastal areas, which has increased runoff and sedimentation polluting coral waters.
“NOAA”:http://www.noaa.gov announces “major coral bleaching in the Carribbean”:http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2526.htm