{"id":42553,"date":"2019-01-10T16:31:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T21:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42553"},"modified":"2019-01-10T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T21:31:47","slug":"as-disease-ravages-coral-reefs-scientists-scramble-for-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=42553","title":{"rendered":"As Disease Ravages Coral Reefs, Scientists Scramble for Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A research diver looks for signs of stony coral tissue loss disease in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.<\/span> JIM ABERNETHY<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As Disease Ravages Coral Reefs, Scientists Scramble for Solutions<\/a><\/h3>\n
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As oceans warm, coral reefs are suffering not only from bleaching but from deadly outbreaks of disease. Researchers are developing remedies, but the key question is whether these solutions can work on a large-enough scale to save vast reef systems from Florida to Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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In September 2014, William Precht received an alarming phone call. \u201cI\u2019m seeing something funky out on the reef,\u201d a colleague reported. \u201cIt looks like disease.\u201d At the time, Precht, a marine biologist and environmental consultant working in coral reef restoration, had been monitoring a Port of Miami dredging project to ensure preservation of the nearby ecosystem. When Precht donned his scuba gear and dove to the site to investigate a few weeks later he couldn\u2019t believe what he found. \u201cThe whole reef was lit up in disease,\u201d he recounts. There were more than 30 coral colonies (each 4 to 16 inches across) with white bands and lines on them, and other corals were entirely white. \u201cYou could see this line of mortality moving across the reef \u2014 I was blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Precht was witnessing the early signs of a new and rapidly spreading coral disease outbreak sweeping along the Florida coastline, threatening the third-largest reef ecosystem in the world. The outbreak first appeared in pockets of diseased coral near Miami. Four years later, it covers 96,000 acres of reef extending about 275 miles from West Palm Beach to the lower Florida Keys. By some estimates, as much as 35 percent of the coral population has been lost. Several species have nearly vanished, including majestic colonies of pillar corals (Dendrogyra cylindrus<\/em>), a threatened species that can reach heights from 6 to nearly 10 feet. The few surviving colonies are now known as \u201cthe last unicorns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A research diver looks for signs of stony coral tissue loss disease in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. JIM ABERNETHY As Disease Ravages Coral Reefs, Scientists Scramble for Solutions As oceans warm, coral reefs are suffering not only from bleaching but from deadly outbreaks of disease. Researchers are developing remedies, but the key question is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9762,8320,23847,11711,7163],"class_list":["post-42553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-coral-reefs","tag-ocean-temperatures","tag-ret-talbot","tag-warming-oceans","tag-yale-environment-360"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42554,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42553\/revisions\/42554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}