Biorock-thailand.com

Author: John Carins
September 6, 2007

Travel promoters suggesting visits to coral reefs often exaggerate and fib, says a leading
scientist.

“Coral reefs are the most sensitive of all ecosystems to global warming,” said marine biologist Dr Thomas J. Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, who often travels to reservation projects in Asia.

“Almost every tropical country stakes its future on the tourism of white-sand beaches, diving and things related to coral reefs. They say, ‘Come see our pristine reefs.’ And they do this in places where the coral is totally dead. People who haven’t seen coral reefs before often can’t tell the difference.”

What’s the visual distinction between a vibrant reef and a dead one? “It’s like a tropical rainforest versus a parking lot.”

Dr Goreau has dived the longest and in the most places among active marine scientists. He also has the world’s largest collection of coral-reef photos, taken by his grandfather and father during the 1940s and 1950s.

“When we go to the same places in the photos, there’s hardly anything left. Even in the best locations, most of the coral has died. It’s frightening how fast it vanishes. Most of the world’s coral has died in the past decade. Not reefs, but coral. The reef is a framework made of dead coral. People talk very loosely with those terms. We don’t lose reefs, but we’ve lost nearly all the coral.”

In Australian waters, “There’s only 20 per cent live coral covering the Great Barrier Reef. It’s collapsing,” said Dr Goreau.

“At the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, people will tell you, ‘Oh, these dead reefs covered with algae were always that way.’ It’s a lie. I’ve spoken to the aboriginals who have photographs of their grandparents who relied entirely on reefs right next to the shore.

“The Australians are in denial, and so is every country. In fact, Indonesia and the Philippines
have the most coral and far and away the highest biodiversity.”

Global warming inflicts massive damage on coral reefs. So do emerging diseases and destructive
fishing with cyanide or explosives. “The cyanide kills every coral it touches, leaving a wasteland behind,” Dr Goreau said.

Raised mainly in Jamaica, Dr Goreau lives in Cambridge, Massachussetts, and travels to Global Coral Reef Alliance projects overseas. Starting in the 1940s, his father, Thomas, also a marine biologist, pioneered “diving as a research tool”, departing from previous studies that relied on samples lifted to the surface.

The Alliance, a 17-year-old network of volunteers dedicated to saving and restoring coral reefs, promotes restoration using a “biorock process” invented by a German architect named Wolf Hilbertz. The technique sends measured doses of electricity through metal-rod frames underwater. Within hours, mineral accretion begins. Hydrogen bubbles appear, then rust converts back to iron and limestone coats the frames, creating a platform on which coral thrives. It grows up to five times faster than normal and endures unhealthy water or unusual temperatures.

Hilbertz died recently. “He was an inspiring pioneer and innovator,” Dr Goreau said.

The Alliance has coral-restoration projects in Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, Panama, the hilippines, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, St Maarten, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Palau, the US and elsewhere.

“What we’re doing works so remarkably well that nobody believes us unless they see it for themselves in their own waters,” Dr Goreau said. “Often dive operators and hotels have the only money in coastal areas, so many of our projects are done for ecotourism – to give the tourists something to see.”

For more information: www.globalcoral.org

Original article:
http://www.cairnsmedia.com/archives_feature_tropical%20tourists%20misled%20on%20coral_09062007.htm

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network estimates that more than a quarter of the world’s reefs have died in the past few decades and that at least another quarter will die within twenty years. However, a new technology called Biorock may hold the key to saving the coral reefs of the planet from extinction.

There are several causes of coral death including physical damage from fishing nets, ocean pollution, and rising levels of dissolved carbon dioxide, but the greatest threat is the increasing temperatures of the world’s oceans. As water temperatures rise, algae living on the coral surface die and leave the bare calcium carbonate substrate exposed. This is commonly known as coral bleaching, and usually means the death of the coral. This coral bleaching is becoming more frequent, with mass bleachings killing most of the corals in the Indian Ocean in 1998 and again in the South Pacific in 2002.

Attempting to slow this damage to the world’s coral, artificial reefs have been built since the 1950s out of materials ranging from concrete blocks to discarded tires. However, most of these plans have failed to provide a new coral habitat, and one such artificial reef off the shore of Fort Lauderdale has become a complete environmental disaster. There have been some successes with artificial reefs, but most remain relatively barren compared with natural reefs. The one notable exception is the work of marine biologist Thomas Goreau and engineer and architect Wolf Hilbertz, who have been experimenting with a new type of artificial reef for over a decade.

The technology, elegant in it’s simplicity, is called Biorock. It arose from experiments in the 1970s when Hilbertz was studying how seashells and reefs grow, by passing electrical currents through sea water. What he found was that as the sea water electrolyses, calcium carbonate slowly forms around the cathode, eventually coating the electrode with a material as strong as concrete. Later experiments showed that the coatings could be grown at up to a thickness of 5cm per year. As long as the power is flowing, the structure would continue to get larger and stronger as time passed. It can also heal itself if damaged, something ordinary concrete can’t do.

Hilbertz’s original plan was to use this technology to grow low-cost structures in the ocean for developing countries, however his focus shifted to coral reefs after meeting a marine biologist. Because the Biorock process uses such simple materials, electrode forms can be constructed in a variety of shapes to mimic natural reefs. Because the calcium carbonate coating that forms is so similar to natural reef substrate, corals take to the Biorock reefs very readily. In fact, other experiments were conducted to see if the electrical current was harming the coral at all and the results were surprising; the coral actually thrived on the electrified reef.

Based on these results, it’s believed that the corals on Biorock reefs are more resistant to environmental threats than natural systems. Because of the electrical accretion of calcium carbonate to the reef, the corals are able to divert more energy to growth and reproduction instead of protection. Coral growing on Biorock reefs are able to grow up to 3 or 4 times faster than natural corals, giving them the ability to survive environmental disasters such as the mass bleaching of 1998.

The Biorock reefs can be constructed in any shape or size, but most built so far have been dome-shaped and about 12 meters in diameter. The amount of electricity each Biorock reef requires is low, drawing less than 3 watts per square meter. So far most reefs have obtained their power from solar panels but other possible sources of power are underwater turbines, wave generators or OTEC platforms.

While the research is currently focused on preserving and restoring the planet’s ailing coral reefs, there’s a possibility that one day Hilbertz’s original dream will be realized and floating islands will be created using this remarkable technology.

Published: April 07, 2007 - The Australian
Author: Leigh Dayton, Science writer

THE Great Barrier Reef - one of the natural wonders of the world - could be gone in 20 years unless global warming was slowed, scientists warned last night.

“With 1C to 2C warming it’s stuffed up, and with 3C it’s gone, through widespread coral bleaching,” Australian climate change expert Geoff Love said from Brussels, where he attended this week’s meeting of the UN and World Meteorological Association’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Dr Love’s comments reflected a series of dire predictions by the panel about the impact of climate change on plants, animals and people.

Other bad news for Australia involves ever more floods, fires and droughts, disappearing plants and animals, the social and economic repercussions of eroded coastlines, critical water shortages, melting snow and the decline of agriculture and forestry production in the south and east.

According to the CSIRO’s Kevin Hennessy, a lead author of a chapter on Australia and New Zealand in the IPCC report, even if global warming was slowed, the continent was “committed” to some dramatic changes, and individuals and governments must take steps to adapt.

“We hear a lot more about the need for reducing (greenhouse gas) emissions than we do about the need to adapt,” Dr Hennessy said, also from Brussels.

He said key scientific data must be obtained to enable officials to respond to global temperature rises predicted to range from 1.1C to 6.4C at the end of the century.

He said there was now not enough information about the impacts on water resources to make good management decisions.

“Changes in rainfall and projected increases in evaporation are likely to lead to reduced soil moistures and reduce runoff into rivers,” said Dr Hennessy.

“We’ve only quantified that in a small number of catchments.”

University of NSW climate scientist Andy Pitman agreed. He said that it was also critical to establish what were the natural drivers of global warming.

Professor Pitman said that while it was reasonably clear that the climate along the southern fringe of Australia was more at risk from human-induced global warming, the picture along the east coast was more complex.

And the east coast was where increasing numbers of Australians lived, making them subject to sea-level rises, coastal erosion and storms, said coastal geomorphologist Nick Harvey of the University of Adelaide.

Concern about Australia’s ability to adapt to climate change was reflected in the report, which said: “More extensive adaptation than is currently occurring is required to reduce vulnerability to future climate change, but there are barriers, limits and costs.”