the background: the climate change peril
The Asia Pacific region’s coral reefs are among the most abundant and species-rich in the world.
Of critical importance to humans, they provide subsistence for a major portion of the population, protect coasts for most tropical islands, and contribute major income and foreign exchange earnings from tourism.
Some estimates place living resources (such as fish) and services (such as tourism returns and coastal protection) provided by reef habitats to humans at about US$375 billion each year.
Dawn of a global threat
In the Asia-Pacific region, many reefs and the marine resources that are found there are already under tremendous pressure from over-exploitation. But a much more insidious and serious threat may be the impact of climate change, which has already dealt reefs a several blow: coral bleaching.
This phenomenon occurs when increased sea temperatures result in the loss of zooxanthellae, the organisms that live with corals. As a result, corals rapidly lose colour and turn a brilliant white, while the vital functions offered to corals by these organisms are no longer available. Sustain the temperature increase over time and the coral dies.
Coral resources
What is El Niño?
El Niño means the Christ child, a name that refers to the occasional occurrence of unusually warm waters in the equatorial eastern Pacific along the coast of Peru and Ecuador, that often begins around Christmas (hence the name).
The warming brings nutrient-poor tropical water southward along the west coast of South America at intervals of 3-7 years.
El Niño is associated with atmospheric circulations that produce wide-ranging effects on global weather and climate.
In 1997 and 1998, something odd happened in the planet's tropical seas. Across the world, concerned scientists were mulling over an inordinate increase in sea surface temperatures. In the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere, the slight mercury jump was wreaking havoc as a result of a phenomenon called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event.
El Niño is one of the most talked about weather phenomena of the decade. Its rising destructive power has coincided closely with growing evidence that the world is warming. And the link is not a chance event.
For corals in Indonesia, as for coral areas elsewhere in the world, the 1997/1998 El Niño episode was a sign of bad news: here, they suffered the most extensive and severe bleaching and death on record.
In Bali Barat National Park, the impact of bleaching was considerable, affecting as much as 75-100% of coral cover, with many soft corals simply disintegrating .
As if climate change wasn't enough
While developed countries are mostly responsible for climate change and its impacts, coral reefs in developing tropical countries are also affected by bad policies, poor enforcement of the law, and a lack of consideration for the real cost of unsustainable exploitation.
