Herpes No. 1 Human Disease Impacting, Killing Corals

By Andrea Thompson

NEW YORK — Corals get cold sores too. Only, for corals, a herpes virus infection isn’t just annoying. It can be lethal, and it and other diseases are possibly a big factor in the deaths of coral reefs that humans are causing throughout the world’s oceans, new research shows.

Scientists have known for years that humans are killing corals indirectly and directly through global warming, overfishing and pollution. Many reefs off populous coasts have been decimated, while those near uninhabited areas are often thriving.

“For some reason, when you put people next to reefs, they die,” said microbiologist Forest Rohwer of San Diego State University at a recent symposium at the American Museum of Natural History here.

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Global warming could kill off reef fish

Any rise in sea temperatures due to global warming could decimate fish populations on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, researchers say.

A three-and-a-half year study of fish near Lizard Island at the northern end of the reef, off Queensland, showed that whether they survived from eggs depended not only on their genes but also on their environment.

Monica Gagliano, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and James Cook University (JCU), said water temperatures in the summer breeding season of the Ambon Damselfish varied between 25 and 31 degrees, but the upper end of the range was already of concern.

"What we did is to test what would happen if the water started getting warm according to the predictions for climate change," Dr Gagliano said.

"From our experiments, if the temperature was to rise even just a few degrees, it could have quite dramatic consequences on just how many of those eggs do survive.

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Caribbean's reef-building coral at risk

By DANICA COTO
The Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Six species of reef-building coral could vanish from the Caribbean due to rising temperatures and toxic runoff from islands' development, according to a study released Thursday.

Nearly two dozen scientists from U.S. and Caribbean universities, as well as nonprofits, identified the threatened species while reviewing studies and scientific data at a March conference in Dominica.

The species — about 10 percent of the 62 varieties capable of forming reefs in the region — include staghorn and elkhorn corals, which were once among the most prominent.

"One of the Atlantic Ocean's most beautiful marine habitats no longer exists in many places because of dramatic increases in coral diseases, mostly caused by climate change and warmer waters," said Michael Smith, director of the Caribbean Biodiversity Initiative at Conservation International, a U.S.-based nonprofit.

Peter Edmunds, a biology professor at California State University-Northridge, said the study provided a broad perspective that is "terribly important" but does not indicate how close a particular species is to dying off in the region.story continued