1/14/15, "Predicting climate-driven regime shifts versus rebound potential in coral reefs," Nature.com, Letter, Graham, Jennings, MacNeil, Mouillot, Wilson
Second paragraph:
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From Nature Abstract:
1/14/15, "Predicting climate-driven regime shifts versus rebound potential in coral reefs," Nature.com. Nicholas A. J. Graham, Simon Jennings, M. Aaron MacNeil, David Mouillot and; Shaun K. Wilson
"Recovery was favoured when reefs were structurally complex and in deeper water, when density of juvenile corals and herbivorous fishes was relatively highand when nutrient loads were low. Whether reefs were inside no-take marine reserves had no bearing on ecosystem trajectory."
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AFP on Nature coral reef study:
"Put simply, many reef corals just might be able to survive current rates of global environmental change."
1/14/15, "How some corals recover from 'bleaching': climate study," AFP via Yahoo News
"Research published Wednesday identified factors that may render some reefs more resilient than others.
Five conditions can determine whether or not a reef is doomed after bleaching....
"Water depth, the physical structure of the reef before disturbance, nutrient levels, the amount of grazing by fish and survival of juvenile corals could help predict reef recovery," said Nicholas Graham at Australia's James Cook University, who headed the probe....
One of the worst episodes of mass bleaching, which affected reefs in 60 tropical countries, took place in 1998, a year of an exceptionally strong El Nino weather pattern....
Graham's team draw their conclusions after scrutinising 17 years of data from the Seychelles, before and after the 1998 bleaching, which hit more than 90 percent of the country's coral cover."...
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UK Guardian on Nature coral reef study:
"The coral’s physical complexity and water depth were the two most important factors – sites deeper than 6.3 metres were found to be highly likely to recover – while whether a reef was in a marine protected area made no difference." In 1998 "a strong El Nino coincided with the Indian Ocean dipole." (parag. 3)
1/14/15, "Scientists reveal which coral reefs can survive global warming," UK Guardian, Adam Vaughan
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In the case of the Maldives, coral is depleted because it's been used as the traditional construction material:
"Republic of Maldives," nationsencyclopedia.com
(subhead): "Population"
"The country has a very high population density of 916 people per square kilometer. Twenty-six percent of Maldivians live on the overcrowded capital island of Malé, with an average of 10 persons per household compared with a national average of 6.5. The implications of the country's high population growth and density are severe. The traditional construction material, coral, is near its point of full depletion. More importantly, the fresh water held beneath the soil surface is in rapid decline. This means that the Maldives faces the prospect of importing a large percentage of its water needs to support the growing population, unless there are fast developments in desalination services on the islands."
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