Originally published August 28 2005
Climate changes threaten U.S. coral reef ecosystems
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Changing climates and human acts are threatening the U.S. coral reefs ecosystems, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Coral reef ecosystems of the United States and associated Pacific Islands are still under pressure from overfishing, disease, pollution, coastal development, and climate change finds a new national assessment of the condition of U.S. shallow coral reef ecosystems.
The report, was authored by teams in 14 jurisdictions where the corals are found and was released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
It marks the first attempt to bring together quantitative results of monitoring data and information collected by federal, state, territory, commonwealth, nongovernmental, private and academic partners to provide an overall status report on the condition of U.S. coral reef ecosystems.
Experts in eight of the jurisdictions perceived fishing as a high threat to coral reef ecosystems, while the rest viewed it as a medium threat.
Adverse impacts of fishing include changes in the populations of marine organisms, and fish in particular, that "can have far-reaching cascade effects throughout the ecosystem," the report warns.
lobstering Lobstering in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The removal of herbivorous fish may precipitate changes in benthic, or sea floor, communities by favoring algal species that can outcompete corals following a release of predation pressure.
The report details coral reef conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Navassa, Florida, the Flower Garden Banks, the Main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, the Pacific Remote Island Areas, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Republic of Palau.
The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and the U.S. Ocean Action Plan called for this sort of action.
"This report demonstrates the value of integrating monitoring efforts from local to regional and global scales and highlights the need to develop an integrated global earth observing system that would provide coastal managers the best possible information for ensuring the health of the world's coral reefs and other ocean ecosystems," Lautenbacher said.
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