http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=172&catid=177&id=431&view=article

4 September 2012

South Australian Museum parasite expert Ian Whittington is one of several international scientists whose study in New Caledonia is today published in the journal Aquatic Biosystems.

New Caledonia is home to the biggest coral reef lagoon and the second biggest coral reef on the planet. Coral reefs, essential to the world’s ecosystems, are home to more than 25% of global marine biodiversity but comprise less than 0.1% of the Earth’s ocean surface. They are considered biological “hotspots” because they are especially rich in marine species. Parasites play a major role in species evolution and the maintenance of populations and ecosystems. However the role of parasites is little known or appreciated.

South Australian Museum Scientist, Associate Professor Ian Whittington, and Honorary Research Associate at the Museum, Professor Ian Beveridge (University of Melbourne) are among an international research team of eight scientists from Australia, Britain, Czech Republic, and France. Directed by Jean-Lou Justine at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the team are embarking on an eight year study investigating parasite biodiversity on fish living in New Caledonia’s tropical lagoon.

Their study found that the number of fish parasites is at least ten times the number of fish species in coral reefs (for fish of similar or greater size to the species in the four families studied). Therefore extinction of a fish species on this coral reef would very likely lead to the co-extinction at least ten parasite species associated with it. The disappearance of these parasites, although insignificant at first glance, would result in a biodiversity loss ten times higher. The consequences of such extinctions for the balance of coral reefs and species evolution in general are incalculable.

Associate Professor Ian Whittington and his team in New Caledonia. Photo by Jean-Lou Justine, National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

The Director of the South Australian Museum, Professor Suzanne Miller, says “the findings of this study provide a key insight into the aquatic biodiversity of the Pacific region. Associate Professor Whittington and his colleagues have effectively illustrated the complex relationships between marine organisms and their fragility in the face of climate change and other environmental disturbances.”

The team’s investigation primarily focused on traditional parasite morphology – with an emphasis on crustaceans, external and internal flukes, tapeworms and roundworms. The aim was to estimate the number of parasite species from reef fish and the number of host-parasite combinations possible, and give a clear picture of marine biodiversity in the region. The results of this study are published this week in the online open access journal Aquatic Biosystems.

Parasitic isopod (Anilocra gigantea), photographed alive on an ornate snapper (Pristipomoides argyrogrammicus). Jean-Lou Justine, National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

The parasite and certain fish material collected and studied is held in several natural history museums across the world including the South Australian Museum’s Australian Helminthological Collection in Adelaide. This collection is an internationally renowned collection of parasitic worms established with support from the Australian Society for Parasitology. The material is also held in the Czech Republic, France, UK and USA. All these collections are available to the scientific community for further studies. This emphasises the importance of preserving and increasing the collections of natural history museums. Scientists’ pioneering work in this area and the collections will serve as a reference for similar studies on other coral reefs.

The team:

Jean-Lou Justine, UMR 7138 Systematics, Adaptation, Evolution, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
Ian Beveridge, Department of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Geoffrey A. Boxshall, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Rod A. Bray, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Terrence L. Miller, Biodiversity Program, Queensland Museum, Queensland, Australia
František Moravec, Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská, Czech Republic
John Paul Trilles, Team ecophysiological adaptations and Ontogeny, UMR 5119 (CNRS-IRD-UM1-UM2-IFREMER), Université Montpellier 2, France
Ian D. Whittington, Monogenean Research Laboratory, The South Australian Museum & Marine Parasitology Laboratory, & Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, The University of Adelaide, Australia

Header image: Associate Professor Ian Whittington and his team studying specimens. Photo by Jean-Lou Justine, National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

03 September 2012

A 4-page summary of outcomes of the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium is now online at:
http://www.icrs2012.com/Downloads/ICRS2012_Outcomes_Report.PDF.

The Symposium website will remain operational indefinitely. Here are some useful direct links:

http://www.icrs2012.com/Proceedings.htm

http://www.icrs2012.com/Downloads/ICRS2012_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf, 1500 talk and poster abstracts

http://www.icrs2012.com/ePosters.htm, uploaded posters

http://www.icrs2012.com/Default.htm, videos of all the 12ICRS Plenary talks and the Darwin Medal address

http://www.icrs2012.com/Program/PhotographicCompetition.html, a collection of beautiful images

http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/programs/future-forum/, an hour-long panel discussion on the Future of Coral Reefs

http://www.icrs2012.com/Consensus_Statement.htm, where you can still join more than 3,100 coral reef scientists by endorsing the Consensus Statement on the future of coral reefs.

It has been a great privilege to host 12ICRS, and we hope everyone enjoyed contributing to it, either onsite in Cairns or online. A special thanks to Eliza Glasson, for an amazing job.

Cheers, Terry
————————
Prof. Terry Hughes FAA
Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University
Townsville, QLD 4811, AUSTRALIA
Fax: 61 (0) 4781-6722
tel: 61 (0)7-4781-4000
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/

“Scientists can help by undertaking solution-focused research, by participating more vigorously in policy debates to improve coral reef legislation and implementation, and by sending the clear message that reefs can still be saved if we try harder.” Hughes et al. 2010. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 619-680.

Special thanks to Terry Hughes via the Coral-list @noaa.gov

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/16/climate-change-coral-reefs_n_1888288.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Reuters | Posted: 09/16/2012 1:00 pm Updated: 09/16/2012 8:34 pm

* 70 pct of corals will suffer degradation by 2030

* To protect half of reefs, temperature rise must be under 1.5C

By Nina Chestney

LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The chance to save the world’s coral reefs from damage caused by climate change is dwindling as man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, scientists said in a study released on Sunday.

Around 70 percent of corals are expected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030, even if strict emission cuts are enforced, according to the study.

“The window of opportunity to preserve the majority of coral reefs, part of the world’s natural heritage, is small,” said Malte Meinshausen, co-author of the report published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

“We close this window if we follow another decade of ballooning global greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Coral reefs are home to almost a quarter of the world’s ocean species, they provide coastal protection and can support tourism and fishing industries for millions of people worldwide.

The rise of global average temperatures, warmer seas and the spread of ocean acidification due to greenhouse gas emissions, however, pose major threats to coral ecosystems.

The scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the University of British Columbia and the universities of Melbourne and Queensland in Australia used climate models to calculate the effects of different emissions levels on 2,160 reefs worldwide.

World carbon dioxide emissions increased by more than 3 percent last year and global average temperatures have risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past century.

Coral reefs face serious threats even if global warming is restricted to a 2 degrees Celsius limit, which is widely viewed as a safe threshold to avert the most devastating effects of climate change, such as drought, sea level rise or crop failure.

Warmer sea surface temperatures are likely to trigger more frequent and more intense mass coral bleaching, which is when reefs turn pale, the study said.

Although corals can survive bleaching, if the heat persists they can die. This happened in 1998 when 16 percent of corals were lost in a single, prolonged period of warmth worldwide.

Ocean acidification can put even more stress on corals.

As more and more carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere, sea water turns more acidic which can hinder calcification which is crucial for corals’ growth.

“Thus, the threshold to protect at least half of the coral reefs worldwide is estimated to be below 1.5 degrees Celsius mean temperature increase,” the study said.

A separate report last week said Caribbean corals were under immediate threat and urgent action was needed to limit pollution and aggressive fishing practices.

Average live coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined to just 8 percent today compared to more than 50 percent in the 1970s, according to the report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Special thanks to Desiree Barbazon

http://www.iucn.org/?10903/Crunch-time-for-Caribbean-corals

07 September 2012 | International news release

Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, 7 September 2012 (IUCN) – Time is running out for corals on Caribbean reefs. Urgent measures must be taken to limit pollution and regulate aggressive fishing practices that threaten the existence of Caribbean coral reef ecosystems, according to a new IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) report.

Average live coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined to just 8% of the reef today, compared with more than 50% in the 1970s according to the report’s findings. Furthermore, rates of decline on most reefs show no signs of slowing, although the deterioration of live coral cover on more remote reefs in the Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands and elsewhere is less marked—with up to 30% cover still surviving. These areas are less exposed to human impact as well as to natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Special thanks to Paul Hoetjes Paul.Hoetjes@rijksdienstcn.com via Coral-list