Biology professor presents marine research
Kerri Anne Renzulli
Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: News
Coral reefs off the coast of South Florida with tissue damage are failing to heal when located near land-based pollution sources that release industrial chemicals, fuel oils and other contaminants, according to the findings of John E. Fauth, UCF associate professor of biology and his colleagues.
The research team, consisting of Fauth, Phillip Dustan and Eric Pante of the College of Charleston's biology department; Kenneth Banks of the Broward County Department of Environmental Protection; Bernardo Vargas-Angel of the National Coral Reef Institute and Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center; and Craig A. Downs of Haereticus Environmental Laboratory in Amherst, Va., presented their findings to 2,000 scientists on July 16 at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale.
"Similar finds are being reported worldwide, and coral reef biologists were delighted that Gov. Charlie Crist came to the symposium and signed a bill to close all of the ocean outfalls - pipes that each day send millions of gallons of treated wastewater from sewage treatment plants - by 2025," Fauth said.
World Research Institute's Reefs at Risk program lists coastal development and treated wastewater discharge as chronic problems for Florida's southeast coast. The research team's project, funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection through the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative, aims to identify the chain of causality land-based pollutants have rendered on the responses of reef-building coral and the health of coral reef communities in the South Florida Watershed.
"In my opinion, pollutants, including nutrients, are the second leading cause of coral reef declines worldwide, surpassed only by elevated ocean temperatures," Fauth said.
Mustard Hill Coral, a common reef building coral found in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, taken from four paired inshore and offshore locations off Broward County, was tracked to see how quickly they regenerated tissue lost from lesions made when they collected tissue samples.
The research team, consisting of Fauth, Phillip Dustan and Eric Pante of the College of Charleston's biology department; Kenneth Banks of the Broward County Department of Environmental Protection; Bernardo Vargas-Angel of the National Coral Reef Institute and Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center; and Craig A. Downs of Haereticus Environmental Laboratory in Amherst, Va., presented their findings to 2,000 scientists on July 16 at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale.
"Similar finds are being reported worldwide, and coral reef biologists were delighted that Gov. Charlie Crist came to the symposium and signed a bill to close all of the ocean outfalls - pipes that each day send millions of gallons of treated wastewater from sewage treatment plants - by 2025," Fauth said.
World Research Institute's Reefs at Risk program lists coastal development and treated wastewater discharge as chronic problems for Florida's southeast coast. The research team's project, funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection through the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative, aims to identify the chain of causality land-based pollutants have rendered on the responses of reef-building coral and the health of coral reef communities in the South Florida Watershed.
"In my opinion, pollutants, including nutrients, are the second leading cause of coral reef declines worldwide, surpassed only by elevated ocean temperatures," Fauth said.
Mustard Hill Coral, a common reef building coral found in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, taken from four paired inshore and offshore locations off Broward County, was tracked to see how quickly they regenerated tissue lost from lesions made when they collected tissue samples.