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24 Jan 06 International Scientists To Study Coral Reefs Worldwide The Age 25 Jan 06 Scientists undertake reef headcount Scientists know more about the moons of Jupiter than they do about what lives on the bottom of the ocean, the head of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) says. In the first biodiversity study of its kind, researchers from the north Queensland-based AIMS, US-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Centre will carry out a four-year census of the world's coral reefs. The Australian study, one of 17 being carried out by the global network of researchers, will try to discover how many different species of plants and animals exist on coral reefs. AIMS chief executive Ian Poiner described reefs as "the rainforests of the sea" because of their extraordinary biodiversity. But little is known about them compared to their terrestrial counterpart. "The oceans are the largest habitat on the earth," Dr Poiner said. "And, in terms of what lives on the bottom ... we know more about the moon or we know more about some of the moons of Jupiter than we know about the ocean." The study will assess various areas, including The Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean, the Hawaiian islands and the Indian Ocean. Dr Poiner said scientists knew about corals, fish and molluscs but were missing key information about most of the animals that lived in and around coral reefs. "We might have a bit of information about this reef here or this reef there, but in terms of being able to say what is the biodiversity and how many different species exist in the world's coral reefs, we can't answer that question," he said. Current estimates range from a million species to nine million species. "But those estimates come from pretty wild extrapolations from rainforest data and also some extrapolations from measuring artificial reefs and aquariums, so they're pretty flimsy," Dr Poiner said. He said scientists aimed to figure out how to maintain ocean biodiversity, particularly in the Caribbean, where humans have had an impact on 80 per cent of its reefs. Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State 24 Jan 06 International Scientists To Study Coral Reefs Worldwide U.S., Australian researchers will take global census of diversity Three oceanographic research institutions will collaborate on a global census of coral reef ecosystems aimed at estimating the numbers of reef species and determining their vulnerability to human stressors. According to a January 23 press release from the Census of Marine Life, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will participate in this global census of coral reefs (CReefs). The project is one of 17 coordinated by the Census of Marine Life, a global network of more than 1,700 scientists from 73 nations engaged in a 10-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the oceans. "Reef decline worldwide is troubling," said Russell Brainard of NOAA. "Just within the last three decades, declines of 80 percent in coral cover have been reported for Caribbean reefs, and even apparently healthy reefs have suffered measurable degradation." Such losses are of special concern because many reefs occur off the coasts of developing countries and island communities whose people depend on the reefs for their livelihoods and physical protection. The CReefs project will try to determine how many species exist on the world's coral reefs and the prospects for maintaining species diversity on reefs suffering various levels of human impacts. The project also aims to determine how much and what kinds of information are needed to preserve reef biodiversity, and how much reef area must be maintained for different levels of diversity to persist. Researchers will use traditional taxonomy (the classification of organisms in an ordered system) and new DNA-based technologies to speed their ability to detect new marine species in samples of reef rock, sediments and water. Because much of the information on reefs is scattered and often difficult to access, CReefs will bring together what is known by providing a Web site for global coral reef ecosystem biodiversity. Support for the Census of Marine Life comes from government agencies concerned with science, environment and fisheries in a growing list of nations and from international organizations, private foundations and companies. More information about the Census of Marine Life is available on a Web site maintained by the University of Rhode Island. Census of Marine Life [Washington, D.C.] Press release, January 23, 2006 Marine scientists going down for the count Scientists to study coral reefs worldwide Three world-class oceanographic research institutions today announced a collaboration to conduct a global census of coral reef ecosystems aimed at estimating the numbers of reef species and determining their vulnerability to human stressors. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will participate in this unprecedented global census of coral reefs (CReefs), one of 17 projects of the Census of Marine Life, a global network of researchers in more than 70 nations engaged in a 10-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans. Coral reefs have been dubbed the rainforests of the sea because they are highly threatened repositories of extraordinary biodiversity, but little is known about the ocean's diversity as compared to its terrestrial counterpart. Dr. Nancy Knowlton of Scripps Oceanography, CReefs lead principal investigator, said, "We don't even know to the nearest order of magnitude the number of species living in coral reefs around the globe. Our best guess is somewhere between 1 and 9 million species based on comparisons with the diversity found in rainforests and a partial count of organisms living in a tropical aquarium." What little information there is available is based on just a few groups, mainly corals, fishes, and some molluscs. "Even more importantly, we do not have any clear understanding of how many reef -associated species can survive various levels of reef degradation," said Dr. Julian Caley of AIMS. There is a lack of understanding of even the broad dynamics of reef collapse and recovery, which makes it difficult to predict what will happen to coral reefs as a consequence of human activities. "Reef decline worldwide is troubling, just within the last three decades, declines of 80% in coral cover have been reported for Caribbean reefs, and even apparently healthy reefs have suffered measurable degradation," said Dr. Russell Brainard of NOAA. Such losses are of special concern because many reefs occur off the coasts of developing countries and island communities, where people depend on them for their livelihoods and physical protection. The CReefs project will endeavor to answer the following questions: How many different species exist on the world's coral reefs? What are the prospects for maintenance of species diversity on reefs suffering various levels of human impacts? How much and what kinds of information are required to manage reefs to effectively preserve biodiversity? How much reef area must be maintained for different levels of diversity to persist? Dr. Knowlton explained that in addition to traditional taxonomy, researchers will utilize new DNA-based technologies that will greatly speed their ability to detect new marine species in samples of reef rock, sediments and water. Because much of the existing information on reefs is scattered and often difficult to access, CReefs will play a crucial role in bringing together what is known by providing a web-site for global coral reef ecosystem biodiversity. Census of Marine Life More than 1,700 scientists from 73 countries are at work on the Census, designed to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of ocean life and explain how it changes over time. The scientists, their institutions and government agencies are pooling their findings to create a comprehensive and authoritative portrait of life in the oceans today, yesterday and tomorrow. Support for the Census of Marine Life comes from government agencies concerned with science, environment, and fisheries in a growing list of nations as well as from private foundations and companies. The Census is associated or affiliated with several intergovernmental international organizations including the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UN, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the UN Environment Programme and its World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization. It is also affiliated with international nongovernmental organizations including the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research and the International Association of Biological Oceanography of the International Council for Science. The Census is led by an independently constituted international Scientific Steering Committee, whose members serve in their individual capacities, and a growing set of national and regional implementation committees. links Related articles wild shores |
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