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It seems that most of the heat impact of global warming is absorbed by ocean waters (https://e360.yale.edu/features/how_long_can_oceans_continue_to_absorb_earth
by jyoshi 6y ago
It seems that most of the heat impact of global warming is absorbed by ocean waters (https://e360.yale.edu/features/how_long_can_oceans_continue_to_absorb_earths_excess_heat https://e360.yale.edu/features/how_long_can_oceans_continue_...)
Coral reefs typically live in rather shallow waters (less than 500ft according to wikipedia), because of their dependency of sunlight. So at this depth, there is already a strong daily variation due to day/night cycle, and I imagine a 1 degree average warming on earth is much potentiated in this environment.
Perhaps there is something to be done actively in short term in those environments to prevent this warming, but its so fragile as there are countless interactions between all the microorganisms that I that must be an enormous undertaking, if even possible.
- UncleOxidant 6y agoAs the oceans warm we can help out by seeding corals in areas that were previously too cool to allow for coral survival. Corals can be easily "fragged" (branches broken off and glued onto other rocks can grow - this is often done in the reef aquarium trade) and moved to areas that are not as warm. Under natural circumstances this kind of migration would take a while but perhaps humans can help speed up the migration into waters with more favorable temps.
- jascii 6y agoThat is an interesting idea, however one caveat I see is that the same warming that is killing the corals also changes the ocean currents and heat distribution in ways we can't fully predict yet. I can see this making the site choice difficult.