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Question about reef building coral. I live literally on top of an old coral reef. In the desert. This area was under an ocean 10's of millions of years ago. A

Question about reef building coral. I live literally on top of an old coral reef. In the desert. This area was under an ocean 10's of millions of years ago. As the earth warms won't coral simple colonize along the new coastline? Why will they suddenly be gone? (there may be an answer... I just don't know what it would be).

23throwaway23 7y ago
So what is currently happening with the climate is that increased CO2 and heat is being absorbed by the ocean. This is changing the ocean's PH balance, making it more acidic. THIS is what is causing the coral reef die-off. So unlikely that they will simply move. What is more terrifying is that as warming increases and acidity goes up, not only will the coral structures bleach and die out (50% complete), they will begin to actually dissolve, hampering any recovery. This would make the situation irreversible.
changoplatanero 7y ago
I thought the reason the coral dies is not because of rising coastline but because the ocean is warmer and the extra co2 makes it more acidic.
LargeWu 7y ago
Part of the problem with coral is that the oceans are becoming more acidic, and as a result, it literally dissolves coral skeletons.
- mythrwy 7y ago
  I can see acidification being an issue for sure. And CO2 is supposed to increase acidification. But many geological reef formations are very old, 10's or even hundreds of millions of years old. At the time these reefs were formed, CO2 levels were much much higher than they are predicted to be any time soon. Yet somehow the reefs were constructed anyway and corals as a species pulled through. In spite of CO2 levels (per Wikipedia) '''between 200 and 150 million years ago of over 3,000 ppm, and between 600 and 400 million years ago of over 6,000 ppm''' (what are we at today? like 400ppm?) The reef I live on incidentally is thought to have been formed like 265 million years ago. At which time CO2 levels were possibly an order of magnitude higher than today. So I really am a bit confused still.
Theophraustous 7y ago
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ This is a wonderful resource to see exactly how massive of a change in C02 this is. It also goes into detail on many of the effects we are seeing now in response to climate change.

23throwaway23 7y ago

So what is currently happening with the climate is that increased CO2 and heat is being absorbed by the ocean. This is changing the ocean's PH balance, making it more acidic. THIS is what is causing the coral reef die-off. So unlikely that they will simply move. What is more terrifying is that as warming increases and acidity goes up, not only will the coral structures bleach and die out (50% complete), they will begin to actually dissolve, hampering any recovery. This would make the situation irreversible.

changoplatanero 7y ago

I thought the reason the coral dies is not because of rising coastline but because the ocean is warmer and the extra co2 makes it more acidic.

LargeWu 7y ago

Part of the problem with coral is that the oceans are becoming more acidic, and as a result, it literally dissolves coral skeletons.

mythrwy 7y ago
I can see acidification being an issue for sure. And CO2 is supposed to increase acidification. But many geological reef formations are very old, 10's or even hundreds of millions of years old. At the time these reefs were formed, CO2 levels were much much higher than they are predicted to be any time soon. Yet somehow the reefs were constructed anyway and corals as a species pulled through. In spite of CO2 levels (per Wikipedia) '''between 200 and 150 million years ago of over 3,000 ppm, and between 600 and 400 million years ago of over 6,000 ppm''' (what are we at today? like 400ppm?) The reef I live on incidentally is thought to have been formed like 265 million years ago. At which time CO2 levels were possibly an order of magnitude higher than today. So I really am a bit confused still.

Theophraustous 7y ago

https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ This is a wonderful resource to see exactly how massive of a change in C02 this is. It also goes into detail on many of the effects we are seeing now in response to climate change.