EurekAlert!, 31st July 2008
Increasingly acidic conditions in the ocean—brought on as a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere—could spell trouble for the earliest stages of marine life, according to a new report in the August 5th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. Levels of acidification predicted by the year 2100 could slash the fertilization success of sea urchins by an estimated 25 percent, the study shows. " If other marine species respond similarly—and there’s no evidence yet that …

Coral Reef News – SeaWeb, July 10th 2008
So, the final, dying embers of the conference to rake over. Dick Dodge kicks things off by saying what a diverse bunch of topics we’ve covered. This symposium has been one of synthesis, he says. Here’s how we’re going to do things over the next couple of hours…
Each Mini-Symposium chair has submitted a report. Nancy Barron is going to explain more.
The goal today, she tells us, is to make this fast food… er, fun. She emailed the idea through to her “victims” and …

So it seems like Walther Starck (with his post graduate training and “professional experience in fisheries biology“) has come running to the rescue with a critique entitled “The Great Barrier Reef prophets of doom”, in response to a recent online piece by Charlie Veron (“The plight of the Great Barrier Reef”):
Although Charlie Veron is a highly respected coral taxonomist many of the statements he made regarding climate change are at best doubtful. Like most biologists he appears to have accepted the “consensus” view of catastrophic climate change without being aware …

Reuters, 14th March 2008
Two dominant coral species have built a good chunk of the Caribbean reef, and their ability to grow quickly may help the region’s coral reefs keep pace with rising sea levels caused by global warming, researchers say.
The endangered staghorn and elkhorn corals grow about 10 times faster than any other in the Caribbean and reproduce in part by breaking into bits for easy ocean spread.
Ken Johnson, who led the study published in the journal Science, said researchers had found that the staghorn and elkhorn coral were not …

Following close on the heels of IUCN report …
PARIS (AFP, Jan 28 2008) — The Caribbean’s fragile coral reefs were devastated in 2005 by a doubly whammy of record-high temperatures and 13 full-on hurricanes, according to a UN-sponsored report released Monday.During the last 50 years many Caribbean reefs have lost up to 80 percent of their coral cover, damaging or destroying the main source of livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people, said the report, prepared by a team of scientists and experts at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring …

I was rung up today by a journalist who wanted me to comment on whether sunscreens could cause coral bleaching. Her question was triggered by an article published this month in Environmental health Perspectives by Danovaro, R. et al. (doi:10.1289/ehp.10966.) which shows that very small amounts of sunscreen can cause corals to bleach. This is potentially interesting given the often close association of tourists and coral reefs.
Looking closely at the paper, however, I think there may be a few problems. Whereas the article talks about ‘bleaching’ (which …

Sexy Corals Keep ‘Eye’ on Moon, Scientists Say
New York Times
October 19, 2007
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even lowly corals do it — but infrequently, forgoing sex for as long as a year.
Then, at night, just after the full moon, under warm tropic breezes, the corals dissolve in an orgy of reproduction, sowing waters with trillions of eggs and sperm that swirl and dance and merge to form new life. The frenzy can leave pink flotsam.
Scientists discovered the mysterious rite of procreation in 1981 and ever since have puzzled over …

A new study released today by Bruno & Selig in PLoS Biology shows some very interesting trends in coral decline in the Indo-Pacific. In a nutshell:

Average coral cover is lower than expected (22.1%, 2003).
Coral cover is surprisingly uniform across regions.
Coral cover on the GBR (often considered one of the best managed reefs in the world) is no higher than other regions (e.g. Phillipines).
Although there is a lack of historical baselines, regional coral cover is at least 20% below historical records.
Indo-pacific coral cover declined from 42.5% in the early 1980′s to …