The feathery, branched staghorn and other floral-looking chorals are disappearing from Caribbean reefs, report UK and Canada researchers. What is left are flatter reefs with fewer of the hidey-holes and crannies that help support diverse fish populations, report the authors. It is, one author says, a drastic loss of architectural complexity that not only affects biological productivity but decreases the ability of reefs to attenuate the impact of storms on island shores. The report is in Proceedings of the Royal Society-B.

Nobody wrote the story long and few wrote it at all, so far. Perhaps for a reason: it smells like old news. We have been reading about coral decline and coral bleaching and similar reef madness for years. But that the topography of reefs across a broad stretch of ocean is now dramatically different than it was 40 years years ago seems a clear step-up from earlier discoveries of corals dying one by one.

Stories:

• Reuters – Pete Harrison:  Climate change blamed for Caribbean coral deaths ;
• Toronto Globe and Mail – Mark Hume : Flat seascape / Reefs collapse across Caribbean, study says ; He gets a chilling quote: “There are no detectable complex reefs left” ; Included is a wrecked and dulled reef that is second in size to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ;
• Telegraph (UK) : Coral reefs collapse amid global warming ;

Grist for the Mill:

Univ. East Anglia Press Release ; PRS-B Abstract ;

-CP

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