The Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia
is a true natural wonder. The structure is composed of
1400 miles of small islands and associated shallows formed
of an old uplift mountain range.
The reef, as popularly understood, is an assortment of
pleasant coral species wafting
in the current tended by
colorful friendly fish in a harmonious exhibit of the natural
world that has existed forever. More accurately the reef is
about as old as the pyramids and formed as the sea level
dramatically rose at the end of the last ice ace. Corals
desperately grew upwards on the skeletons of their dead
ancestors to maintain the correct depth until the sea
stabilized at its current level. The reef, however, is not
safe.
As part of an ongoing commitment to hysteria, news
outlets publish articles on the downfall of the reef.
Evidence includes coral bleaching events, where stretches
of coral turn white. Not some chemical event as suggested
by the name, but rather the animal ejecting the
photosynthetic symbiote they typically host. This is a valid
marker of stress that can be temporary or permanent.
Obviously, man-made climate change causes coral anguish
and the Australian ecosystem must suffer, to the eternal
shame of global humanity. So what's to be done?
Well, since I'm thinking about setting up my own mini coral
reef, as an exercise, I had a quick look at the data from
the Australian Institute of Marine sciences <link>. Some
admittedly quick stats revealed a very poor correlation
between years of observed bleaching (1998,2002,2006,2016
& 2017) and either peak temp or moving average* temp.
So, I ask my friend who runs a very large public aquarium
in the middle east and looked after a few 100km of the
Thai reefs after the tsunami "don't worry about a degree
here or there mate, messed up nitrogen and phosphorous
are where it all goes wrong, refugium with chaeto is your
friend there".
Further research suggests that indeed, lots of
nitrate/phosphate run-off from agriculture is a major
concern. Sadly, that's downplayed because solving it upsets
farmers and costs money. So, let's use the aquarium
solution: Chaetomorphia.
This green weed-like macroalgae grows in practically any
conditions where light and seawater coexist. Its growth is
limited by nitrate and phosphate concentrations so where
they are abundant it grows rapidly, sucking up the
nutrients. So, construct a series of floating corrals
anchored between australia and the reef, concentrating on
river/stream outlets. Pop in some chaeto, wait, come back
and harvest tonnes of the stuff, wash, sell to farmers as
fertilizer.
*moving average is used a lot in this kind of data, but it's
oscillatory (Day-night superimposed on summer-winter) so
something like a Savitzky-Golay would be better, but who
am I.