Coral reef areas worldwide have been devastated by escalating temperatures, nutrients, and new diseases. Conventional strategies for conservation and reef fisheries management have largely failed to work because of these new threats. We have compiled the satellite derived sea surface temperature records for all major reef areas worldwide from 1982-2003. The results show strong increases in temperature almost everywhere, with maximum values marked by severe coral bleaching events. However there are strong regional differences in the rate of warming as a result of large scale changes in ocean circulation. The net effect of these changes is that most coral reef areas have only a few years before most of the remaining corals die of heat stroke, and many of the most productive fisheries areas are undergoing circulation changes that will cause the food chain to collapse from the bottom up, even in the absence of overfishing. Current international climate change agreements are far too weak to prevent disastrous changes in the near future. However despite the widespread view that action to solve the problem is too technically difficult and economically expensive, this is only because low cost and practical alternatives to stabilize climate are ignored by policy makers and funding agencies. We have developed novel methods using low voltage direct currents that can be supplied by solar panels, tidal current turbines, and windmills that allow us to quickly grow coral reefs of any size and shape, on which corals grow 3-5 times faster than normal, survive severe high temperature stress 16-50 times more than surrounding reefs, quickly build up large fish and shellfish populations, and turn eroding beaches into growing ones in a few years. Large scale restoration of degraded habitat is they key to keeping coral reef ecosystems alive, increasing sustainable fisheries, creating ecotourism attractions, and protecting shorelines from rising sea levels, but are not yet supported by policymakers or funding agencies.

 

Dr. Goreau has led efforts to protect coral reefs at the negotiations for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Conference on Development of Small Island Developing States, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He has published around 200 papers in all areas of coral reef ecology, and on global climate change, the global carbon cycle, changes in global ocean circulation, tropical deforestation and reforestation, microbiology, marine diseases, soil science, atmospheric chemistry, community-based coastal zone management, mathematical modeling of climate records, visualizing turbulent flow around marine organisms, scientific photography, and other fields. Dr. Goreau will speak on sustaining island ecosystems in a time of climate change.