Coral reefs fall victim to overfishing, pollution aggravated by ocean warming

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2016/jun/coral-reefs-fall-victim-overfishing-pollution-aggravated-ocean-warming

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Coral reefs fall victim to overfishing, pollution aggravated by ocean warming[/font]

06/07/2016

[font size=3]CORVALLIS, Ore. – Coral reefs are declining around the world because a combination of factors – overfishing, nutrient pollution, and pathogenic disease – ultimately become deadly in the face of higher ocean temperatures, researchers have concluded.

A study published today in Nature Communications, based on one of the largest and longest field experiments done on this topic, suggests that the widespread coral deaths observed in recent decades are being caused by this combination of multiple local stressors and global warming.

These forces greatly weaken corals, and allow opportunistic pathogens to build to such levels that corals cannot survive.

The findings were made by researchers from six institutions following a three-year experiment that simulated both overfishing and nutrient pollution on a coral reef in the Florida Keys. The large body of field data collected over an extended period of time helped resolve some of the fundamental questions about the cause of coral reef declines, scientists said.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11833

[ladjf]

1. The human race is too greedy, mean and stupid to survive much longer. nt