{"523981":{"#nid":"523981","#data":{"type":"news","title":"El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s Warm Water Devastates Coral Reefs in Pacific Ocean","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA team of marine scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Victoria have returned from nearly a month of scuba diving on coral reefs in the middle of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. What they saw will haunt them for a long time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u0027s as if someone has thrown a fuzzy red\/brown blanket over the reef, turning it all one color,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/shadow.eas.gatech.edu\/~kcobb\/\u0022\u003EKim Cobb\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. \u201cRight now it looks okay from afar, with all the coral structure still in place. But when you get up close, you see that it\u0027s all dead, as far as the eye can see. It\u2019s very eerie.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECobb and the Georgia Tech team worked with biologist \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/baumlab.weebly.com\/\u0022\u003EJulia Baum\u003C\/a\u003E and her team of UVic researchers on Kiritimati Island (also known as Christmas Island), the world\u2019s largest coral atoll. Christmas Island is about 150 miles north of the equator and 1,340 miles south of Hawaii. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/what-el-nino-event\u0022\u003EThe current El Ni\u00f1o is the strongest ever recorded\u003C\/a\u003E, and it has hit this area harder than anywhere else on the planet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen the Georgia Tech team \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2015\/12\/01\/el-nino-warming-causes-significant-coral-damage-central-pacific\u0022\u003Evisited the reefs last November\u003C\/a\u003E, 50 to 90 percent of corals they saw were bleached and as many as 30 percent were already dead. This time, after months of warm waters powered by the El Ni\u00f1o, the numbers were more stark. After extensive underwater surveys around the atoll, Baum\u2019s team estimates that 80 percent of the corals are dead and 15 percent are bleached. Only 5 percent are still alive and healthy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTo see the reefs change this dramatically in just a few months is shocking,\u201d says Baum. \u201cWe were bracing ourselves for the worst, but seeing it with our own eyes was surreal. Christmas Island\u2019s coral reefs are like ghost towns now. The structures are all still there, but no one is home.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECorals are communities of animals that have tiny photosynthetic algae living inside them in a mutually beneficial relationship. The algae provide corals with their vibrant corals, along with a vital source of food via photosynthesis. Corals, in turn, provide the structure that shelters their tiny algal symbionts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECorals are very temperature-sensitive. A rise of just 1-1.5 degrees Celsius can stress coral enough to evict the algae until the heat stress subsides. This leaves a ghostly white coral skeleton and is known as \u201cbleaching.\u201d During protracted warm water events, such as the current El Ni\u00f1o, bleached corals aren\u2019t able to bring their symbiotic plants back in, and they can die of starvation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETemperatures on Christmas Island have been between 1.5 to 3 degrees Celsius higher than normal for the past 10months straight. \u201cThis intense heat stress has transformed some of the world\u2019s healthiest coral reefs into graveyards,\u201d says Baum. \u201cTo our knowledge, this is the greatest coral mass mortality event at a single location on record.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany other areas in the world\u2019s oceans are also showing extensive bleaching this year, including Australia\u2019s Great Barrier Reef, but the Christmas Island corals were pushed far beyond bleaching.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECobb and Baum think it may take a decade or more for the Christmas Island reefs to recover, but they might never look the same because of warmer-than-average temperatures and lower ocean acidity. Both are the consequences of rising greenhouse gases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAside from their sheer beauty and appeal, coral reefs provide a host of ecosystem services that are critical to a healthy ocean,\u201d says Cobb. \u201cWhen remote reefs like Christmas Island succumb to acute temperature stress, it\u0027s a wake-up call for the rest of the world\u0027s reefs, which will come under increasing stress from climate change.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cChristmas Island\u2019s people rely on the reefs for their food and their livelihoods, so they\u2019ll be profoundly affected by this event,\u201d says Baum. She and her team will be studying the reefs carefully over the coming years to assess the recovery and learn more about how some corals are managing to resist heat damage. At the same time, Cobb and her students will work to determine whether the record-breaking 2015\/2016 El Ni\u00f1o event is a portent of future El Ni\u00f1o events under continued climate change.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur research will provide important new insights into how corals may be able to survive more frequent temperature extremes over the next century,\u201d says Baum. \u201cIn the meantime, this event is a vivid reminder that the effects of climate change are happening now, and that the choices we make about greenhouse gas emissions in the next decades will have long-term effects.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeoriga Tech and University of Victoria reserachers visited Christmas Island, 1,300 miles south of Hawaii, to see the effects of El Ni\u00f1o\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EAfter months of warm waters, nearly 80 percent of corals are dead. In November, at the same site, the number was 30 percent.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers visited an atoll in the Pacific Ocean and found that 80 percent of coral reefs are dead."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2016-04-13 10:21:39","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:21","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"523921":{"id":"523921","type":"image","title":"Coral reefs at Christmas Island","body":null,"created":"1460732400","gmt_created":"2016-04-15 15:00:00","changed":"1475895293","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:53","alt":"Coral reefs at Christmas Island","file":{"fid":"205427","name":"dive_video_still.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dive_video_still_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dive_video_still_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1021777,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dive_video_still_0.jpg?itok=3cPatYLi"}},"523951":{"id":"523951","type":"image","title":"Coral reefs at Christmas Island 2","body":null,"created":"1460732400","gmt_created":"2016-04-15 15:00:00","changed":"1475895293","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:53","alt":"Coral reefs at Christmas Island 2","file":{"fid":"205430","name":"screen_shot_2016-04-13_at_9.29.42_am_0.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen_shot_2016-04-13_at_9.29.42_am_0_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen_shot_2016-04-13_at_9.29.42_am_0_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":2869840,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/screen_shot_2016-04-13_at_9.29.42_am_0_0.png?itok=o94nocgj"}},"523941":{"id":"523941","type":"image","title":"Dead coral 1","body":null,"created":"1460732400","gmt_created":"2016-04-15 15:00:00","changed":"1475895293","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:53","alt":"Dead coral 1","file":{"fid":"205429","name":"coral5_hg.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/coral5_hg_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/coral5_hg_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1812940,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/coral5_hg_0.jpg?itok=w8F7N_zi"}},"523961":{"id":"523961","type":"image","title":"Dead coral 2","body":null,"created":"1460732400","gmt_created":"2016-04-15 15:00:00","changed":"1475895293","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:53","alt":"Dead coral 2","file":{"fid":"205431","name":"coral1_hg.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/coral1_hg_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/coral1_hg_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1764036,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/coral1_hg_0.jpg?itok=UWd-xHze"}},"523971":{"id":"523971","type":"image","title":"Before and After Photo","body":null,"created":"1460732400","gmt_created":"2016-04-15 15:00:00","changed":"1475895293","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:53","alt":"Before and After Photo","file":{"fid":"205432","name":"before_and_after.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/before_and_after_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/before_and_after_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1174588,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/before_and_after_0.jpg?itok=GyKX8rTd"}},"515231":{"id":"515231","type":"image","title":"Kim Cobb","body":null,"created":"1458923790","gmt_created":"2016-03-25 16:36:30","changed":"1501531624","gmt_changed":"2017-07-31 20:07:04","alt":"Kim Cobb","file":{"fid":"226380","name":"KimCobb_aug16_small.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/KimCobb_aug16_small_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/KimCobb_aug16_small_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":506095,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/KimCobb_aug16_small_0.jpg?itok=W9SCbk0k"}}},"media_ids":["523921","523951","523941","523961","523971","515231"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/shadow.eas.gatech.edu\/~kcobb\/","title":"Kim Cobb"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2015\/12\/01\/el-nino-warming-causes-significant-coral-damage-central-pacific","title":"Read About Her November Trip"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/what-el-nino-event","title":"What is El Ni\u00f1o"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"122071","name":"christmas island"},{"id":"2262","name":"climate"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"7166","name":"coral"},{"id":"100711","name":"coral reefs"},{"id":"10994","name":"el nino"},{"id":"33791","name":"kim cobb"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71911","name":"Earth and Environment"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}