How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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The Presence of People Negatively Affects Corals
Reference
Hawkins, J.P., Roberts, C.M., Van't Hof, T., De Meyer, K., Tratalos, J. and Aldam, C.  1999.  Effects of recreational scuba diving on Caribbean coral and fish communities.  Conservation Biology 13: 888-897.

What was done
The authors compared coral communities in protected reserves and environmentally-similar dive sites off the Caribbean island of Bonaire.

What was learned
It was discovered that even relatively low levels of diving can have pronounced effects on dominance patterns of corals.  By merely bumping into corals, for example, divers often cause abrasions that provide entryways for various vectors of coral disease, which, in the words of the authors, "is indirectly causing a serious loss of large, long-lived colonies."  In addition, they also note that "the impact of background stresses on massive corals seems to have been greater in the presence of diving."

What it means
There can be no escaping the fact that where people interact with corals, either directly or indirectly, corals suffer, either directly or indirectly (by becoming more susceptible to the deleterious effects of other stresses, such as higher water temperatures, for example).  Hence, it is only to be expected that with ever more people coming into closer proximity to the world's coral reefs, ever more coral damage will be detected as time progresses.  Much of the damage that is currently attributed to effects of global warming, therefore, may well be laid at the feet of the increasing human population through any number of ancillary impacts.


Reviewed 1 March 2000