It’s Getting Hot Out There is a report published by the Endangered Species Coalition (ESC) listing 10 of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States and its territories. Included on the list are shallow water coral reefs, such as those found in the US Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands Daily News reports:
Derek Goldman, a spokesman for the coalition, said the group hopes to raise awareness and influence policy-makers with the report.
“We’re hoping that they begin thinking about these things and putting in place protections for some of these critical ecosystems,” Goldman said.
Coral reefs are living habitats for many endangered species and are vulnerable to ocean acidification and rising sea surface temperatures, according to the report.
As absorbed carbon dioxide increases the acidity of the ocean, coral reefs have more difficulty secreting their calcium carbonate skeletons. Slowed growth rates, coupled with warming temperatures that cause tropical corals to bleach, can result in dead reefs, according to the report.
Many corals in the territory died in the bleaching event of 2005.
“We lost over 50 percent of our live coral to disease as a result of the prolonged stress of bleaching,” said Rafe Boulon, chief of resource management for the Virgin Islands National Park.
If carbon dioxide levels continue to rise in the ocean, coral reefs are in danger of becoming functionally extinct, according to the report. The impact “may be especially severe for elkhorn and staghorn corals that are already critically endangered,” the report states.
It also notes the negative impact that climate change – and dying coral reefs – will have on endangered fish and other endangered marine species that live, forage, or spawn in the reefs.
“They’re right. These are exactly our concerns,” Boulon said of the report.
The report recommends measures to boost the resiliency of coral reefs, including mitigating the impacts of coastal development, reducing overfishing and reducing runoff pollution.
“We’re trying,” Boulon said. “Everybody’s trying to eliminate or reduce some of these impacts and improve the reef’s resiliency.”
Boulon noted that “if we can remove some of the stresses that we can do something about, the corals will hopefully be somewhat more resilient, somewhat more able to bear up under the changes to the ocean environment.”
Read the complete Daily News article for more. You can download a copy of the ESC report from itsgettinghotoutthere.org.
