ABOARD THE SCHOONER TARA, Japan\u2014The key to the survival of the world\u2019s threatened coral reefs may lie in the waters surrounding a small volcanic island off the coast of Japan, scientists say.<\/b>
ABOARD THE SCHOONER TARA, Japan\u2014The key to the survival of the world\u2019s threatened coral reefs may lie in the waters surrounding a small volcanic island off the coast of Japan, scientists say.
The seabed of Shikine island is a \u201cliving laboratory\u201d for researchers aboard the schooner Tara, a French-led scientific expedition, who are looking for clues to help protect coral from the damaging effects of climate change.
While coral reefs cover less than 0.2 percent of the ocean surface globally, they host some 30 percent of marine animal and plant species, serving as a source of food and offering protection from predators.
\u201cLosing these reefs would be horrifying, \u201d said Sylvain Agostini, an expedition coordinator and professor at Japan\u2019s University of Tsukuba.
Shikine\u2019s unique conditions\u2014created by underwater volcanoes that flood some of its coves with CO2 and make it less alkaline\u2014mimic what scientists say will be the impact of unchecked carbon emissions on the world\u2019s oceans by 2100.
The buildup of CO2 due to greenhouse gas emissions or underwater volcanic activity raises the temperature and transforms the chemistry of ocean waters, in a process known as acidification.
Researchers say the waters in parts of Shikine, located 160 kilometers south of Tokyo, offer a glimpse of how marine life\u2014including corals\u2014can fare in less alkaline water.
Japan\u2019s corals, the northernmost in the world, could offer important data to bolster knowledge about marine life, as Australia\u2019s Great Barrier Reef faces a threat to its survival.
Last week, scientists said the famous reef was at serious risk from bleaching\u2014a process in which stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food\u2014due to warming sea temperatures.
They warned that coral bleached for two consecutive years at the World Heritage-listed site had \u201czero prospect\u201d of recovery after researchers detected another round of mass bleaching after an earlier event in 2016.
\u201cI\u2019 ve been studying corals for 20 years and what I\u2019 m seeing is a large-scale decline, \u201d Maggy Nugues, a senior lecturer at the prestigious French research institute Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, told AFP aboard the ship, which departed France in May 2016.
\u201cThere is a 50 percent to 80 percent reduction in coral cover in the Caribbean and the Pacific\u2014this is very troubling.\u201d
Half a dozen researchers on the vessel want to see how an underwater ecosystem, including corals, plankton, seaweed and fish, fares in Shikine\u2019s seemingly inhospitable environment.
Early comparisons with another bay on Shikine that boasts vastly different conditions suggest corals do much better in more alkaline water.
\u201cWe\u2019 re hoping that these higher latitude zones can serve as a refuge, \u201d Agostini said.
\u201cBut the question remains about the acidification of the oceans and it\u2019s here, in Shikine, in these natural laboratories that we hope to find the answer, \u201d he added.
Built in 1989, the 36-meter long ship has gained fame for previous scientific expeditions, including a 500-day trip in the Arctic, and in 2001 when its former owner, New Zealand skipper Peter Blake, was shot dead on board by pirates in the Amazon.
The current two-year expedition will head to Australia and New Zealand before hitting Indonesia and the Philippines.
Nugues warned that the speed of climate change, fueled by human activity, was making it tough for animals to adapt.
\u201cThe planet has evolved under relatively stable conditions, letting organisms and animals adapt, \u201d she said.
\u201cBut here we\u2019 re speeding things up, maybe faster than nature\u2019s clock.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n