re: Scientists discover stunning 310-mile coral reef corridor in Gulf of Mexico

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That didn’t really answer his question. If earth is slowly warming than wouldn’t that simply mean that the narrow band of supportive ecosystem for reefs would move slowly away from the equator?

From what I remember about coral bleaching, doesn’t it have something to do with carbon in the atmosphere?

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I didn't get that question from his statement. But anyway in terms of geologic time they absolutely would relocate but reefs are like old growth forests they just don't pop up. Now why don't they just creep? The problem is they require very specific environmental conditions outside of just temperature and those also have very limited scope. Unless those other conditions remain constant in the direction of creep the reef can't continue that way.

Reef-building Corals are planktonic in their larval stage, and widespread. They mostly require a hard substrate, the correct wavelengths of sunlight (in the photic zone), and the proper salinity. Provided there are no pollutants or high turbidity, or large amounts of freshwater infusion from rivers or estuaries, it is reasonable to expect that there are other reefs that have yet to be discovered.

My statement implies every variation in natural cycles is quickly blamed on global warming, as is seen in others outlets reporting on this story.

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Coral reefs worldwide are threatened by warmer waters brought on by climate change. Since 2014, NOAA has tracked multiple outbreaks of coral bleaching worldwide brought on by periods of unusually high ocean temperatures, including in the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula region. Warmer-than-usual waters stress the coral, which then releases a critical algae from its body. Under normal conditions, the algae help feed the coral through photosynthesis. Without it, coral can die. Back-to-back marine heat waves in 2016 and 2017 caused devastating coral bleaching and die-offs over two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, drawing attention to coral's vulnerability to climate change and global warming.

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It's the easy quick response; but as you have said other conditions are at work. I tend to believe that the other environmental issues are more the cause than is global warming. Otherwise, bleaching would be more prevalent in tropical waters.

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It's the easy quick response; but as you have said other conditions are at work. I tend to believe that the other environmental issues are more the cause than is global warming. Otherwise, bleaching would be more prevalent in tropical waters.

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One of the big issues here is "global warming" is politically charged even though only the portion that is mad-made is the only part that is remotely political. There may be a half dozen people on this board qualified to discuss even the basic biology or corals yet there will be lots that will express a strong opinion as to whether or not global warming is a major contribution to the bleaching of reefs.

We both know corals live in a very narrow band of multiple environmental conditions any significant change in a single or multiple variables can cause enough distress for bleaching. I personally think the primary cause is climate change (again not suggesting any percentage is man-made). The thing about climate change as a whole is it impacts more than just the temperature, cloud cover (thus available photons for photosynthesis), salinity and even turbidity are all impacted by climate. That said my personal observations show that temperature causes the quickest bleaching within ranges that can be attributed to climate change. Chemical toxicity like copper poisoning is so easy to rule in or out and nothing to support it is coming out of the GBR for example.

Going back to your first point corals like all other animals with pelagic larvae cast there "seeds" over a large area but they only settle, become sessile and grow in areas that meet their very specific needs. There are probably coral reefs on every inch of the ocean floor that meet their requirements. Hermatypic coral tends to be the pickiest compared to larger polyped lagoon species. The problem for them is they can die very quickly (a matter of days or weeks) when environmental conditions, particularly temperature, are not favorable. So even if they are able to relocate via spawning before their death the new reefs would take decades if not centuries to replace their diversity and biomass. This will have a huge impact on the ecology of the oceans. None of this is to suggest man can prevent the changes but they are a very real issue that we should be giving serious consideration to and not fighting out some political agenda. There has been some research in fragging and "replanting" some of the corals that seem to be beginning to evolve into more temperature tolerant animals.

Remember when the Scuba guy said you didn’t know what you were talking about and to shut up? Good times.

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So they discover this reef and immediately it’s “threatened”. Give me a break.

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This... allllll of this