coral bleached-odd definition of decimated

decimate

ˈdɛsɪmeɪt/

verb

past tense: decimated; past participle: decimated

1. 1.

   kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of.

   "the inhabitants of the country had been decimated"
2. 2.

   historical

   kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group.

   "the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large body of mutineers"

UPDATED BELOW 11/3/2014
ABC use the word in the following headline:

Coral reef off Pilbara coast in Western Australia decimated by marine heatwave, scientists say

We did not find the word "decimated" used by scientists in the article, this appears to be another case of ABC exaggeration. 

A recent relevant CSIRO report provides the following information about the bleaching event:

Unfortunately, on the trip the research team found evidence of coral bleaching in the region due to some recent marine heatwaves, including the bleaching of a pocket of ancient coral heads – many up to 400 years old – that have provided an important record of reef health.

“We suspect this bleaching event was due to marine heatwaves that occurred in the region over the past few summers, and to see it up so close was sobering,” said our lead scientist on the project, Dr Russ Babcock.

“But to offset this loss, some reefs only a short distance north showed much less damage and will continue to contribute to a healthy ecosystem. By studying these sorts of variations and why they occur, we can improve our overall understanding of the marine environment in the region, and how we can best preserve it”.

The team managed to take some great images of the incredibly diverse flora and fauna that sits under the waters of the Pilbara. We asked Russ to run us through a few photos from the trip to give you an insight into the work of a marine biologist – and maybe even help you learn something in the process! Click on one of the images below to view the gallery.

Decimation seems an exaggeration to me. One of the images accompanying ABC's report which presumably shows the purported "decimation" is re-produced below:

This is ABC's caption: Christmas Tree Worms on a Porites coral head, that has been bleached by a marine heatwave off WA's Montobello Island.

This is a CSIRO photo. Here's the CSIRO's caption for the same photo (oddly no mention of bleached coral): "A coral reef Christmas Display. Those coloured blobs you can see are called Christmas Tree worms, and they are sitting on a porites coral colony. The worm's name is misleading on two counts-they spend their whole life sitting in a tube in a decidedly un-worm like state, and they prevalent all year round,but just don't tell the kids."

We have asked Alan Sunderland and CSIRO's Dr Russ Babcock for comment.


From ABC 11/3/2014:

Thank you for your email of 13 February concerning coral bleaching off the Pilbara coast.  

As your correspondence raised concerns of a lack of accuracy, your email was referred to Audience and Consumer Affairs for consideration and response. The unit is separate and independent from ABC program areas and is responsible for investigating complaints alleging a broadcast or publication was in contravention of the ABC's editorial standards. In light of your concerns, we have reviewed the story and assessed it against the ABC’s editorial requirements for accuracy, as outlined in section 2 of the ABC’s Editorial Policies. In the interests of procedural fairness, we have also sought and considered material from ABC News.

The word 'decimated' used in the headline was taken directly from the CSIRO's Media Release which states:

"Some unwelcome discoveries were made, including the bleaching and decimation of a pocket of ancient coral heads - many up to 400 years old - that have provided an important record of reef health".

As the CSIRO is Australia's top scientific organisation, the use of the headline 'Coral reef off Pilbara coast in Western Australia decimated by marine heatwave, scientists say' is a legitimate description of the content covered in the story.

The original caption, however, did not refer to the photo that was published and has been changed.

ABC News apologises for any confusion that may have resulted.

score +1

Coral Reefs Delay the Effects of Ocean Acidification

One wonders if ABC will look into this good news story...

Can Coral Reefs Delay the Damaging Effects of Ocean Acidification?

Research shows that reefs are able to counteract the trend toward acidity through their own biochemistry, but at a cost 

Scripps Institution of Oceanography/University of California, San Diego

According to a paper published Nov. 17 in Nature Climate Change, coral reefs may respond to ocean acidification in ways that will partially offset expected changes in seawater acidity taking place as the oceans take up human-produced carbon dioxide.

Andreas Andersson, a chemical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and lead author of the paper, said that most predictions of seawater acidification on coral reefs are based on observations from the open ocean. But the effects of increasing CO₂ on coral reefs are very different than the changes in the open ocean, because the reef itself modifies the chemistry through various biogeochemical processes.

The study, based on observations of the Bermuda coral reef ecosystem, predicts that changes to this system in response to ocean acidification could offset human-induced, CO₂-driven decreases in pH by 12 to 24 percent. Andersson and colleagues also predict that these reef responses will counteract a predicted decrease in the seawater aragonite saturation state, a measure of the availability of carbonate ions, by 15 to 31 percent.  This is an important parameter because corals need these ions to build their calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) reefs.

“Other researchers have shown that different benthic communities can alter the chemistry on the reef, but we’re the first to show it on this scale, the whole ecosystem scale, over five years of observations,” Andersson said.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide has gone up by 42 percent and global average temperatures have increased by 0.8°C (1.4°F) since the Industrial Revolution. These changes have well-defined effects on the open ocean, increasing both the acidity and temperature of surface seawater. This decrease in ocean pH has left many scientists concerned about the detrimental effects it could have on coral reefs.

Increasing temperature and decreasing pH make it harder for corals to build calcium carbonate, and also cause calcium carbonate to dissolve more readily. The reef’s total ecosystem organic carbon production (photosynthesis minus organic matter consumed) will also be affected. All of these processes – calcification, dissolution, and ecosystem organic carbon production – affect seawater pH. By modeling how the balance between these processes will change in the future, Andersson and his coauthors discovered that the expected changes may actually increase the pH on the reef relative to the open ocean, thus partially offsetting the decrease in pH owing to uptake of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Many laboratory and field experiments have studied the effects of rising temperatures and ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems. Although scientists aren’t sure exactly how much reef processes will change, they are confident that calcification will decrease and dissolution will increase as the ocean becomes more acidic. These changes to calcification and dissolution could be so drastic that eventually the coral reefs’ dissolution rate will catch up to the rate at which they build, resulting in stunted growth or deterioration.

“This is something that a lot of experiments and models have predicted will happen,” Andersson said. “This means the reef is dissolving as fast as it’s producing calcium carbonate, and this was the scenario in which we saw the greatest pH offset.”

A reef’s survival depends on putting down more calcium carbonate than is dissolving or it won’t be able to grow, so a reef in this state is not a healthy one, even if it’s able to maintain a more beneficial pH.  This outcome tempers the seemingly good news that corals can “fight” ocean acidification—these offsets will come at the cost of major changes to reef processes and ecosystem composition. The reefs may change from being dominated by calcifying corals to non-calcifying algae, a condition that may diminish their functional and biological diversity.

But there is some positive news in these results, Andersson says. Scientists believe some marine organisms may have “tipping points,” certain pH thresholds below which they aren’t able to survive. This reef feedback may buy them some more time.

“The take-home message [of these results] is that to understand the effect of ocean acidification on a coral reef we have to consider not just how seawater chemistry on the reef is changing owing to uptake of anthropogenic CO₂ and how that affects the biogeochemical processes on the reef, but how these processes actually control the chemistry,” Andersson said.

Missing News: Coral Reefs adaptable to climate change

In 2008 ABC news reported on the award of a State Government research grant to a north Queensland university student to continue researching how rising sea temperatures affect coral (Reef researcher wins Smart State grant). Odd then that that when the researcher in question has something positive to say about the adaptability of the reef to climate change that ABC choose not to report anything.

Just as well The Australian are there to fill in the gap with a good news story...
Coral breakthrough offers climate hope.

CORAL reefs may be much better able to adapt to rising sea temperatures due to climate change than previously thought, according to a breakthrough Australian discovery revealed yesterday.

The research undertaken at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and published in the journal Nature Climate Change has overturned previously held assumptions about coral bleaching and which corals may survive in warmer waters.

According to PhD student Emily Howells, the findings demonstrate the potential for corals to adapt is more widespread than previously thought.

By Graham Lloyd, follow the link above to read the rest.

Past Alarm. World's Coral: 40% gone by 2010

On Monday 22 April 2002 ABC's flagship current affairs program, 4 Corners, broadcast the following alarming prediction in a report titled: Beautiful one day.
Across the world, coral reefs are turning into marine deserts. It’s estimated that more than a quarter have been lost and that 40 per cent could be gone by 2010.
From the transcript:
According to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, 10 per cent of the world's reefs were lost by 1992.
27 per cent were lost by the year 2000.
And it's expected 40 per cent will be gone by 2010.

In 1997 the area of the world's coral reefs was estimated to be 255,000km2. Reference.
If the prediction made on 4 Corners is to be believed, then in 2010 the area of the world's coral reefs should be around 153,000km2. 
Instead, in 2011, one year on from that alarming forecast, we find that the global area of coral reef is estimated to be 249,713km2. Reference.
This amounts to a change from 1997 figures of -2.1%. Given the unreported uncertainties, there has essentially been no change in global reef area over the past 10 years. Within error, essentially none of the reefs are missing in 2010. This ABC story turns out to be yet another beat up, designed to scare rather than inform. 
Will Four corners now provide an update? Or will it leave this forecast of climate doom to go uncorrected?