Harlequinmania

Click through to see the images. The radioactive-looking ice cream color and luminescence was created by Lick Me I'm Delicious owner Charlie Harry Francis using a newly synthesized bioluminescent jellyfish protein created by a scientist in China. What else would you do with a bioluminescent protein but put it into ice cream, right? According to Mr. Francis: “We’ve been working with a company who have managed to synthesize a protein extracted from jellyfish that causes bioluminescence to occur. We’re using a specific form of this protein which reacts with calcium at a neutral pH, causing the protein to glow when it comes into contact with calcium, i.e. when it’s agitated, i.e. when it’s licked.” When asked about if it is safe to eat, here is what he had to say: "Is it safe to eat? Well I tried some and I don't seem to be glowing anywhere, so we'll go with a yes for now." I'm pretty sure the FDA will want a bit more information on its safety as a food additive though. The ice cream, however, comes with a hefty price tag: £140 per scoop ($225 for our American audience)! This is an unfortunate side-effect of the high cost of the synthesized bioluminescent jellyfish protein additive, thus you will probably not see this ice cream at Ben and Jerry's any time soon. “It’s probably the most expensive ice cream I’ve ever made. Jellyfish luminescence is four times pricier than gold so each scoop costs me around £140 [or $225 US].” Via Inhabitat View the full article

Click through to see the images. Dr. Peter Wirtz is in the process of describing a new species of blenny in the genus Malacoctenus. In order to complete the work, he must return to the Cape Verde Islands to obtain another specimen, then he must complete the description and publish the description. He is hoping to raise the funding necessary to complete this work by auctioning off the right to name the fish. Funding for science, especially taxonomy, has been increasingly difficult to obtain and auctioning off species names has a number of precedents. For example, in 2007, to raise funding for its Coral Triangle Initiative, Conservation International held a grand event in Monaco to auction naming rights to a number of fishes discovered in Indonesia (see Washington Post article, “New Species Owe Names to Highest Bidder”). German non-profit Biopat offers an online catalog of species awaiting patrons willing to donate funding in return for naming rights (those proceeds are directed to the educational institutions of the discoverers and to field work). Winners can have the blenny named after themselves, a loved one, or any (reasonable) name of their choosing. FYI: When a species is named after a person, the name is given a Latin ending. The ending depends on the gender of the person being honored. For males the ending is formed by adding the letter “I” and for females by adding the letters “ae”. So if the winning bidder is called John Smith and wants the species named after him, it could be called Malacoctenus johnsmithi.” The minimum bid is 5000 US$. Anyone interested in naming the species can contact Dr. Peter Wirtz directly by email via peterwirtz2004@yahoo.com. Dr Wirtz is one of the world’s preeminent experts on blennies and has published many papers and books over his career. Portions of this article are reprinted with permission from our friends at blennywatcher.com View the full article

Click through to see the images. Reef Suds supplied their press release to Advanced Aquarist A New Product to Ease Aquarium Maintenance Unveiled — “Reef Suds” November 6, 2013 For all of those hobbyists out there who have scrubbed their hands with warm water for extensive amounts of time or questioned how to get your limbs clean prior to tank maintenance, Jarob Fetters, aquarium enthusiast and founder of Reef Suds, has brought you a solution. Last week Reef Suds launched their new product, the first aquarium safe hand soap. The block of suds is all natural and eco-friendly with no additives, artificial colors, or fragrances. Full of natural course sea salt exfoliants, the 1.5-inch think bar is designed to eliminate unwanted impurities. After extensively testing the bar for nearly a year now, the Company has come up with a proprietary blend to ensure it is tank safe. Without giving away their secret, they divulge that using an extremely low amount of super fat is key to keep a neutral PH and prevent leftover oil slicks. The soap has been tested on various reef tanks ranging in size and inhabitants, including the most sensitive of aquariums, SPS tanks. Some of the tests included pH, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, and TDS; all from both aquarium and pure water samples. Reef Suds has also announced that $1 from every bar of soap sold will be donated directly to the Coral Restoration Foundation in order to help re-build coral reefs. Founder Jarob Fetters says, “Not only does the aquarium hobby rely on the well being of coral reefs, but we as a society do more than most people realize. I feel it is extremely important to give back to the things you are passionate about. Whether it’s a little or a lot, every bit helps, and we want to make a difference.” The new product can be pre-purchased on the company's website www.reefsuds.com. The first bars are said to go out in late November. Designed to ease the process of maintaining your aquarium, Reef Suds encourages you to spend more time with your fish tank and less time preparing for it. Contact Information: Danielle Murphy Brand Manager support@reefsuds.com View the full article

Sg bros does my old office tank piping, very basis one but price is ok. Maybe you can check as well Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

i have been using this product and is a good products . Visible observation include, lesser algae growth on glass , rock and water is much clearer. It really take a long time before the whole wax turn white, and need replacement. Other than that, just throw it inside your sump .

Didnt notice this as well. Already updated!

Click through to see the images. This paper is a continuation of Dana Riddle's first article: Light Data from a Hawaiian Tidepool There are many variables to consider when deciding which lighting system to purchase or how to utilize that light. While light intensity can be estimated visually (with experience) or, much better, quantified with a PAR meter, accurately gauging spectral qualities requires specialized equipment. Fortunately, my small laboratory has the devices available to analyze both light intensity and spectral quality. If we coordinate collection of the two, we can perform many calculations, with the results being of interest to dedicated hobbyists. Specifically, we can examine the dose of various bandwidths (e.g., blue, green, red light) falling upon corals in a shallow Hawaiian tide pool and compare these to light received by corals in captivity. I had pondered for some time the logistics of combining these data, and the invitation to present at the 2013 Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) in Fort Lauderdale was the impetus for finally launching the projects and collecting necessary information. I had accepted the invitation to speak in Florida, and the race was on. Just a few months remained before conference and I realized all my 'spare' time would have to be devoted to these projects. In an article published (www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/9/aafeature) we established that it is possible to match the amount of natural light within an aquarium. But what of spectral qualities? This article will detail the procedures and results. Porites corals dominate in this Hawaiian tidepool. Protocol Spectral data were collected with an Ocean Optics USB2000 spectrometer and SpectraSuiteâ„¢ software (Ocean Optics, Dunedin, Florida, USA). This device consists of a diffraction grating and Sony IXL511 linear silicon CCD array with 2,048 pixels, all within a housing about the size of a deck of playing cards. It is attached to, and draws its power from, a computer via a USB cable. This makes it highly portable and suitable for fieldwork. Small fiber optic cables can be attached which allow spectral data to be collected in shallow water. See Figure 1. The fiber optic cable was positioned at a 45 angle to a 99% diffuse reflectance standard (Spectralon; Labsphere, North Sutton, New Hampshire, USA). Figure 1. The Ocean Optics USB2000 spectrometer used in these experiments and reflectance standard. The spectrometer is a sturdy instrument and has given over a decade of reliable service. Thousands of data points were collected. See Figure 2 shows one spectral quality snapshot of an underwater light field (2" depth) in February 2013. Figure 2. Graphical spectral information on the tidepool underwater light field at a depth of 2" (~5 cm). (7:30 am, February 7, 2013), as SpectraSuite software shows it. The information in Figure 2 is pretty but doesn't tell us much; hence it was exported to another Excel program for further analyses. Easier said than done. The Ocean Optics spectrometer 'sees' light at 3 or 4 points per nanometer, and this information must be interpolated to 1 nanometer increments. This involved writing a 'sum and average' program for random groups of 3 or 4 data points (and the spectrometer reports approximately 2,000). See Figure 3. Figure 3. Numerical data from SpectraSuiteâ„¢ is interpolated to 1 nanometer increments by a specially written Excel program. This is a snapshot of underwater spectral data at 7:30 am. Almost 50 of these data sets were combined in order to visualize time-course spectral qualities in a Hawaiian tide pool. This program then divided collected data into the following bandwidths: Violet: 400 - 430 nm Blue: 431 - 480 nm Green-Blue: 481 - 490 nm Blue-Green: 491 - 510 nm Green: 511 - 530 nm Yellow-Green: 531 - 570 nm Yellow: 571 - 580 nm Orange: 581 - 600 nm Red: 601 - 700 nm The program then calculated the percentage of light in each bandwidth. See Figure 4 for graphical data. Figure 4. Spectral quality of light at 7:30am at a depth of 2 inches (5 cm) in the tide pool. The percentages are also shown in a table. See Table 1. Table 1. Analyses of the light fields yield valuable information and allow comparisons among various light sources. Color Percentage Violet 7.5655% Blue 18.818% Green-Blue 5.519% Blue-Green 11.585% Green 10.756% Yellow-Green 17.671% Yellow 3.351% Orange 5.728% Red 19.008% Once percentages were determined, they would be used to determine Spectral Daily Light Integral (DLI) by multiplying the amount of Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) by percentage per bandwidth. This requires knowing the PAR values. A WatchDog data logger and PAR sensors (Aurora, Illinois, USA) were deployed and collected PPFD data above the water line and at a depth of 2 inches. Wind and wave action created 'glitter lines' and made the light field irregular starting mid-morning and ending late afternoon. A polynomial trend line was added to estimate underwater light intensity. See Figure 5. Figure 5. Light intensity data from the shallow tide pool. Since thousands of data points were collected, I decided to use information collected at the moment of sunrise and every 15 minutes thereafter until sunset. If we multiply the PAR values by the percentage of light per bandwidth (taken at 15 minute increments), we are able to estimate the amount of light per color over the course of a day. See Figure 6. Figure 6. We can easily see the amount of PAR in each color of the visible spectrum. For instance, red light bandwidth peaks at a PAR value of about 235 µmol·m²·second, while blue peaks at around 160 µmol·m²·second. We are not done quite yet. The data shown in Figure 6 can be further refined by calculating the: Daily Light Integral: The Daily Light Integral is the total amount of light (or Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density, or PPFD) falling on a given area during the entire photoperiod. The best comparison is to compare PPFD to rainfall. An instantaneous PPFD value (the number of photons falling on a given surface area in a given amount of time) is equivalent to the number of raindrops falling on an equal area and time. We would find a weather report presenting rainfall as number of raindrops falling on a square meter per second to be practically useless. We are more interested in the total amount of rainfall reported in inches or centimeters. The same is true for light - we should be interested in the total number of photons in a given photoperiod. This article will carry DLI a step further - they will be calculated for spectral bandwidths (e.g., blue, green, red, etc.) as described in the 'Protocol' section (above). We simply sum the number of photons per bandwidth. The results are shown in Figure 7. Figure 7. The total amount of light per bandwidth (e.g., blue, green, red, etc.) in the tidepool. Now that we know the amount of light per color, we can compare them to that light produced by an artificial lamp). The procedure outlined above was repeated for a LED fixture from Build My LED. See Figures 8 and 9. Figure 8. Spectral signature of a custom-built LED fixture containing those generating light at a maximum of mostly blue light at 450nm and 470nm, with 4,500K 'neutral whites'. Figure 9. The amount of light, divided into "color bandwidths" to which the corals in the testing were exposed. Discussion Under the conditions of these experiments, it is obvious that corals within an aquarium can receive more blue light than in nature while being deficient in other colors. In this case, the corals received about 65% more blue light than in the shallow tidepool (this is based on the following data from the aquarium: 12-hour photoperiod at an intensity of ~250 µmol·m²·sec.) In another experiment (www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/9/aafeature) we found that it is possible in a well-lighted aquarium to achieve, and even exceed, the amount of light naturally received by a shallow-water Hawaiian coral in the winter. Light intensity varies with the season, and summer DLI values in the tidepool are likely about double those seen in the winter (something on the order of ~22 winter DLI and ~45 summer DLI; see Hill et al., 2012 for further details). Now that we have established light intensity and its spectral components, we can look at how this light affects corals in captivity. Reference Hill, R., A. Larkum, O. PráÅ¡il, D. Kramer, M. Szabó, V. Kumar, and P. Ralph, 2012. Light-induced dissociation of antenna complexes in the symbionts of scleractinian corals correlates with sensitivity to coral bleaching. Coral Reefs, 31: 963-975. Acknowledgements Many thanks to Build My LED for donating LED fixtures used in these experiments. See: www.buildmyLED.com Kudos to Charlie Mazel for versing me on use of the spectrometer. See his site at www.nightsea.com View the full article

Click through to see the images. The ADA Pro-Tool Bag features 100% polyester weave Detachable waist belt 5.8x12x1.1" (14.5x30x3cm) 0.75 pounds (350 grams) $65 USD (tools not included) View the full article

Click through to see the images. The ADA Pro-Tool Bag features 100% polyester weave Detachable waist belt 5.8x12x1.1" (14.5x30x3cm) 0.75 pounds (350 grams) $65 USD (tools not included) View the full article

Click through to see the images. View the full article

Click through to see the images. View the full article

Click through to see the images. While Innovative Marine manufacturers a full line of aquarium products, they decided to simply design an aquarium, cabinet, and rear compartment system, thus allowing aquarists to choose their preferred lighting, skimmers, and other peripherals. IM's goal with the SR series is clear: To provide a smart platform which aquarists can build upon and other manufacturers can develop equipment for. The Innovative Marine SR series feature high-end components such as high clarity glass with polished diamond edges, designated compartments for skimmers, heaters, reactors, and mechanical filtration, and multiple adjustable return nozzles and multiple pumps for redundancy. But it's their attention to the small things that got our attention. IM supplies rubber leveling mats with all SR systems as well as aluminum framed mesh screens to prevent fish from jumping out the open-top rimless aquariums. Each of the three SR systems differ in length but share the same width (24" front to back) and height (16" low-profile tank, 56" total height). The beauty of this uniformity is that it should make the design process more streamlined for third-party manufacturers to develop products for the SR systems. Judging by IM's video (which feature Ecotech Marine, Real Reef Rock, Farside Tropicals, and Sustainable Aquatics), it's abundantly obvious that Innovative Marine is aiming to work with other companies to build upon the SR platform. " height="383" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="680"> "> "> The SR series made quite an impression at MACNA 2013, so much so that they've already received orders from LFS for four containers worth of units months ahead of its official release. As of today, Innovative Marine is accepting pre-orders for all three SR Aquarium Systems with first shipments going out on November 18, 2013. All systems will be delivered directly to your door on custom pallets. Innovative Marine supplied Advanced Aquarist with the following literature about their newest product line: SR Series Aquarium System Aquariums for the Savvy Aquarist The NUVO Shallow Reef Series is the next advancement into the world of full-sized premium all-in-one aquariums. Based on our award winning NUVO Desktop and Mid-Size series, these full-sized aquariums incorporate streamline minimalistic design, ultra thick polished glass, and offers the highest clarity viewing possible. The SR Series is the perfect combination of functional design for the style savvy aquarist. Make the ultimate upgrade and experience spacious interior for endless design possibilities and enjoy the benefits of a customizable filtration system that keeps equipment discreetly hidden and readily accessible for routine maintenance. SR-60 Aquarium: · 60 Gallon Capacity · Ultra Thick 10mm High Clarity Glass / Low Iron · Leveling Rubber Mat · DIMS (36” x 24” x 16”) · Flat Polished · Diamond Edge Polished · Black Silicone · Aluminum Framed Mesh Screen Lid/Clips Filtration: · Acrylic Filter Wall w / Dual Overflows · (2) 4” Micron Sock - Mechanical Filters · (4) Adjustable Return Flare Nozzles · (2) 317 Gallons Per Hour Pumps · Designated Heater Column · Designated Skimmer/Reactor Column Stand: · 40” High (36” x 24” x 40”) · Magnetic Cabinet Latches · Storage Shelves · Pre-Cut Cable Ports Price: $1,500 USD SR-80 Aquarium: · 80 Gallon Capacity · Ultra Thick 12mm High Clarity Glass / Low Iron · Leveling Rubber Mat · DIMS (48” x 24” x 16”) · Flat Polished · Diamond Edge Polished · Black Silicone · Aluminum Framed Mesh Screen Lid/Clips Filtration: · Acrylic Filter Wall w / Dual Overflows · (2) 4” Micron Sock - Mechanical Filters · (4) Adjustable Return Flare Nozzles · (2) 476 Gallons Per Hour Pumps · Designated Heater Column · Designated Skimmer/Reactor Column Stand: · 40” High (48” x 24” x 40”) · Magnetic Cabinet Latches · Storage Shelves · Pre-Cut Cable Ports Price: $2,000 USD SR-120 Aquarium: · 120 Gallon Capacity · Ultra Thick 15mm High Clarity Glass / Low Iron · Leveling Rubber Mat · DIMS (72” x 24” x 16”) · Flat Polished · Diamond Edge Polished · Black Silicone · Aluminum Framed Mesh Screen Lid/Clips Filtration: · Acrylic Filter Wall w / Dual Overflows · (2) 4” Micron Sock - Mechanical Filters · (6) Adjustable Return Flare Nozzles · (3) 476 Gallons Per Hour Pumps · Designated Heater Column · Designated Skimmer/Reactor Column Stand: · 40” High (72” x 24” x 40”) · Magnetic Cabinet Latches · Storage Shelves · Pre-Cut Cable Ports Price: $3,000 USD View the full article

1) Panda Butterfly ( Pair ) 4" - $20.00 each ( Sold ) 2) White bar Maculosus angelfish 4" - $80.00 ( SOLD & Collected ) 3) Blue face angel fish 5" - $50.00 4) Koran Angelfish 3" - $ 10.00 ( pending collection by Cutebarra77 ) 5) Clown Trigger Fish 4" - $ 25.00 ( pending collection by Noboni85 ) 6) Emperor Angel fish ( Vietnam ) 5" - $ 150.00 7) Harlequin Tuskfish 4.5" - $50.00 (Pending collection by thi46 ) 8) Blue Throat Trigger fish 3" - $ 10.00 ( pending collection by Noboni85 ) 9) Earspot angel fish 4" - $ 200.00 10) Half Black Pygmy Angel 2" - $ 10.00 ( pending collection by Cutebarra77 ) Above is the fish that is left, sorry due to overwhelming respond i am not be able to respond to all PM on time. Will update here again .

Most of the fish can be seem on my old video here ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO_q2AUHWXg

Hi guys, Letting go some fish to reduce bio load and clear space , all fish have been with me more than 6 month and very stable , feeding pallets, frozen ect,, 1) Panda Butterfly ( Pair ) 4" - $20.00 each 2) White bar Maculosus angelfish 4" - $80.00 3) Blue face angel fish 5" - $50.00 4) Koran Angelfish 3" - $ 10.00 5) Clown Trigger Fish 4" - $ 25.00 6) Emperor Angel fish ( Vietnam ) 5" - $ 150.00 7) Harlequin Tuskfish 4.5" - $50.00 8) Blue Throat Trigger fish 3" - $ 10.00 9) Earspot angel fish 4" - $ 200.00 10) Half Black Pygmy Angel 2" - $ 10.00 Fish is not caught yet, please PM me with your interest so that i can trap the fish accordingly so as not to stress the fish. collection / viewing at CCK

Pinnacle shipment just arrived.. Alot of various color mushroom and corals.

Just saw that Lck caribean shipment arrived, grey angel, small french angel, big eye solider fish, rock beauty, neon goby, blue angel ect.. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Click through to see the images. In 2013, the Florida FWCC documented over 25,000 nests full of green sea turtle eggs. This number not only set the record; It more than doubled it! For reference, in 1989 the FWCC only recorded 464 green sea turtle nests. 464 to 25,000+ ... wow! Not to end this report on a down note, but unfortunately neither the leatherback nor loggerhead sea turtles experienced the same boom as the green sea turtles. Rather, nests of both were down compared to 2012. Overall, green and leatherback nests have steadily trended upwards since 1989, but loggerhead nests have remained relatively stagnant. This data tells us conservation is a complex science, not a one-size-fits all process. We have a lot more to learn and do. All sea turtles are classified as endangered and protected by international laws. All three types of sea turtles are renowned seafarers and span the world's oceans. For the full report, read FWCC's Index Nesting Beach Survey webpage. View the full article

Click through to see the images. To prologue his video, here is a snippet written by Chris Burgin of his awe-inspiring experience with the three gentle giants that grace Georgia Aquarium's main display tank. What came next was one of the most enchanting moments I have ever personally witnessed. [...] As feeding time approached, the ventilation fans used to agitate the surface of the water in the middle of Ocean Voyager were turned off. We were told that the whale sharks were actually able to recognize this as an indication of an approaching feast. Our excitement built as we noticed that several animal care members were mounting the small inflatable rafts we had seen earlier with long feeding poles in hand. Suddenly it became readily apparent what the long ropes stretched lengthwise across the aquarium top were for. I was amazed to hear that each whale shark is trained to go to a specific rope during feeding time, to ensure that everyone is properly fed. Read the full story at Aquatic Envy; It's a very well-written and fun read. " height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640"> "> "> View the full article

Info can be found here as well; http://reefbuilders.com/2013/04/01/jns-omega-biopellet-reactor-vertical-churning/

Hi Slayer, Thanks for pointing this out, without you i doesnt know about this problem as well. Now it has been solved and tested. !

Click through to see the images. Press Release Their investigations, carried out at the nanoscale, provide valuable new information for scientists and environmentalists working to protect and conserve coral from the threats of acidification and rising water temperatures. As corals grow, they produce limestone – calcium carbonate – skeletons which build up over time into vast reefs. The skeleton’s role is to help the living biofilm to move towards the light and nutrients. Understanding the calcification mechanism by which these skeletons are formed is becoming increasingly important due to the potential impact of climate change on this process. The scientists looked at the smallest building blocks that can be identified – a microstructure called sphemlites – by making a thin cross-section less than 100 nanometres in thickness of a skeleton crystal. They then used Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to analyse the crystals in minute detail. The TEM micrographs revealed three distinct regions: randomly orientated granular, porous nanocrystals; partly oriented nanocrystals which were more granular and porous; and densely packed aligned needle-like crystals. These different regions could be directly correlated to times of the day - at sunset, granular and porous crystals are formed, but as night falls, the calcification process slows down and there is a switch to long aligned needles. Corresponding author Renée van de Locht, a final-year PhD student with the Department of Physics at the University of York, says, “Coral plays a vital role in a variety of eco-systems and supports around 25 per cent of all marine species. In addition, it protects coastlines from wave erosion and plays a key role in the fisheries and tourism industries. However, the fundamental principles of coral’s skeleton formation are still not fully understood. “It has been suspected for some time that the contrast bands seen in crystals in optical images were daily bands. Through our research we have been able to show what the crystals actually contain and the differences between day and night crystals.” The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the University of York, and concentrated on three species of tropical, reef-building coral - Porites lobata, Siderastrea sidereal, Montastrea annularis. The experimental work was carried out at the University of York’s Department of Physics and the York JEOL Nanocentre, as well as the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (MCA) at the University of Western Australia. Lead investigator Dr Roland Kröger says, “Although we knew there was a difference between day and night crystals, we’ve actually been able to see the evolution from granular to aligned needles and to find out much more information about the phase, orientation and size of the aragonite crystals.” The York researchers are now turning their attention to looking directly at the affects of acidification. Their latest research studies five-day old coral larvae and compares a population from a normal sea water environment with another in an acidic environment. The aim is to investigate the nanoscale impacts of the different environments at early growth stage to assess how these could affect the whole colony and the bigger reef. The coral research at York is also part of a larger project looking at the hard and soft matter interface called the MIB – Interface between Materials and Biology – project. Nature has created materials that combine mineral (hard) and organic (soft) components in a way that provides properties that are extremely well suited to function – for example in bone, egg or mollusc shells. The collaborative project aims to develop a working understanding of how this control is worked out in natural systems, so that the same techniques can be used to develop new materials with specially tailored properties. Via University of York View the full article

Click through to see the images. A new modeling study shows that widespread bleaching events like this one in Thailand in 2010 will become more common in the future. However, the study also found signs corals may be adapting to warming -- the question is if it can be fast enough to keep up with the rate humans are burning fossil fuels. From NOAA's newsroom: Coral reefs may be able to adapt to moderate climate warming, improving their chance of surviving through the end of this century, if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, according to a study funded by NOAA and conducted by the agency’s scientists and its academic partners. Results further suggest corals have already adapted to part of the warming that has occurred. “Earlier modeling work suggested that coral reefs would be gone by the middle of this century. Our study shows that if corals can adapt to warming that has occurred over the past 40 to 60 years, some coral reefs may persist through the end of this century,” said study lead author Cheryl Logan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in California State University Monterey Bay’s Division of Science and Environmental Policy. The scientists from the university, and from the University of British Columbia, were NOAA’s partners in the study. Warm water can contribute to a potentially fatal process known as coral “bleaching,” in which reef-building corals eject algae living inside their tissues. Corals bleach when oceans warm only 1-2°C (2-4°F) above normal summertime temperatures. Because those algae supply the coral with most of its food, prolonged bleaching and associated disease often kills corals. The study, published online in the journal Global Change Biology, explores a range of possible coral adaptive responses to thermal stress previously identified by the scientific community. It suggests that coral reefs may be more resilient than previously thought due to past studies that did not consider effects of possible adaptation. The study projected that, through genetic adaptation, the reefs could reduce the currently projected rate of temperature-induced bleaching by 20 to 80 percent of levels expected by the year 2100, if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. “The hope this work brings is only achieved if there is significant reduction of human-related emissions of heat-trapping gases,” said Mark Eakin, Ph.D., who serves as director of the NOAA Coral Reef Watch monitoring program, which tracks bleaching events worldwide. “Adaptation provides no significant slowing in the loss of coral reefs if we continue to increase our rate of fossil fuel use.” “Not all species will be able to adapt fast enough or to the same extent, so coral communities will look and function differently than they do today,” CalState’s Logan said. While this paper focuses on ocean warming, many other general threats to coral species have been documented to exist that affect their long-term survival, such as coral disease, acidification, and sedimentation. Other threats to corals are sea-level rise, pollution, storm damage, destructive fishing practices, and direct harvest for ornamental trade. According to the Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2000 report, coral reefs have been lost around the world in recent decades with almost 20 percent of reefs lost globally to high temperatures during the 1998-1999 El Niño and La Niña and an 80 percent percent loss of coral cover in the Caribbean was documented in a 2003 Science paper. Both rates of decline have subsequently been documented in numerous other studies as an on-going trend. Tropical coral reef ecosystems are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and provide economic and social stability to many nations in the form of food security, where reef fish provide both food and fishing jobs, and economic revenue from tourism. Mass coral bleaching and reef death has increased around the world over the past three decades, raising questions about the future of coral reef ecosystems. In the study, researchers used global sea surface temperature output from the NOAA/GFDL Earth System Model-2 for the pre-industrial period though 2100 to project rates of coral bleaching. Because initial results showed that past temperature increases should have bleached reefs more often than has actually occurred, researchers looked into ways that corals may be able to adapt to warming and delay the bleaching process. The article calls for further research to test the rate and limit of different adaptive responses for coral species across latitudes and ocean basins to determine if, and how much, corals can actually respond to increasing thermal stress. In addition to Logan, the other authors of the paper were John Dunne, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory; Eakin, NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch; and Simon Donner, Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program funded the study. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our other social media channels. View the full article

Check with reef depot maybe they have this for sales. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Hope to see your new tank thread here soon. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2