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A History of the Botanic Garden of St. Vincent, British West Indies
... The tourism industry in St. Vincent boasts a long history of environmental protection for recreational purposes. For example, the St. Vincent Botanical Gardens are, by some count, the oldest extant botanical gardens in the Western Hemisphere, dating to 1765 (Anonymous 1922;Howard 1954). The gardens feature endemic species from around the Caribbean, as well as other tropical locations. ...
... The gardens feature endemic species from around the Caribbean, as well as other tropical locations. One of the most famous plants in the gardens is an individual breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis), said to have been brought to St. Vincent from Tahiti personally by Captain Bligh on his first voyage after the infamous Bounty mutiny (Howard 1954). Breadfruit has a long and complicated history in the Caribbean, being a beloved, yet humble, local delicacy as well as a botanical link to the region's history of slavery and the perceived need, on the part of the planters, for local, abundant, high-caloric food to fuel the workforce. ...
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a southern Caribbean archipelago consisting of one major island, seven smaller, inhabited islands in the Grenadines, and numerous other uninhabited islets and cays. Geologically and culturally, St. Vincent differs from the Grenadines. St. Vincent is a large island, forested and mountainous, heavily dependent upon agriculture, and entirely the product of volcanic activity. St. Vincent’s stratovolcano, La Soufrière (1178 m), has erupted several times since European settlement, most recently in 1979. The Grenadines consist of small, tourism- and fishery-dependent islands, which are more arid, and geologically much older and more complex. The entire archipelago is subject to a suite of natural hazards, owing to its geography, with St. Vincent particularly susceptible to volcanic hazards.
... Colonial circulation of plants from Asia predated the beginning of Indian indenture in the Caribbean, particularly through the establishment of botanic gardens and for commercial cultivation (Howard 1954). In this way, jackfruit, black pepper, nutmeg, hibiscus, and varieties of bananas and mangoes were introduced, further displacing and effacing indigenous flora while countering the ecological devastation of sugar cane monocropping. ...
This article presents artwork from the project, ‘The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive’, which memorializes the legacy of Indian indenture by recording the flora brought by indentured workers as they exist in the midst of contemporary social life and in the region’s landscape. In the project, mehndi works as a decolonializing and embodied, post-indenture feminist aesthetic praxis and a method for contributing to a new world visual archive. Indo-Caribbean imaginative visual archives can challenge gendered and racialized exclusions in colonial and creole visual representations, and can instead image indenture and post-indenture histories in ways that are accessible, inclusive, consensual and popular; connecting all in the Caribbean and its diaspora to the afterlife of indenture. The article reflects on the images produced, how they echo biographical and fictional writing, and how they critically engage with the orientalising lens of colonial-era photography. In presenting these original designs of a botanical imaginary, the project aims to transform mehndi in post-indenture sites so that art forms which are both traditional and contemporary can be seen as post-plantation techniques for making memory-work an act of beauty. Inspired by his scholarship and encouragement, the project is dedicated to beloved Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo.
... The Botanical Station on St. Vincent provided an important stimulus to the recovery process. The station had been established in 1765, and for some decades had been in the forefront of experimentation in crop growing in the Caribbean (Howard, 1954). After falling into disrepair, it was re-established in 1890 under the curatorship of Henry Powell. ...
Retrospective analysis of the contemporary colonial and scientific records of a major explosive eruption of the Soufrière of St Vincent from 1902 to 1903 reveals how this significant and prolonged event presented challenges to the authorities charged with managing the crisis and its aftermath. In a small-island setting vulnerable to multiple hazards, the spatial footprint of the volcanic hazard and the nature and intensity of the hazard effects were rather different to those of other recurrent hazards such as hurricanes. The eruption affected the same parts of the island that had been impacted by prior explosive eruptions in 1718 and 1812, and hurricanes in 1831 and 1898, with consequences that disproportionately affected those working in and around the large sugar estates. The official response to the eruption, both in terms of short-term relief and remediation, was significantly accelerated by the existence of mature plans for land-reform following the collapse of the sugar market, and ongoing plans for rebuilding in the aftermath of the destructive hurricane of 1898. The picture that this analysis helps to illuminate provides insights both into the nature of the particular eruptive episode, and the human and social response to that episode. This not only informs discussion and planning for future explosive eruptions on St Vincent, but provides important empirical evidence for building effective responses in similar multihazard contexts.
... The West Indian Gardens are mentioned in a survey of the history and function of botanic gardens (Hill, 1915). Dedicated articles on the history of the botanic gardens in St Vincent have been written by Richard Howard (1979;1954) and Howard & Powell (1965), while Pemberton (1999) has documented the Trinidad Botanical Gardens in relation to colonial resource development during the period 1818-1899. For Jamaica, Alan Eyre (1966) wrote a short guide to the island's botanic gardens which provides a brief history and includes sketch diagrams and descriptions of the major gardens, and Mordecai (1984) provides a more detailed description and history of the Cinchona Gardens, drawing largely on annual official reports and bulletins. ...
A brief historiography of Cinchona Botanical Gardens is presented. The Hill Gardens were established in 1868 by the British who, in competition with the Dutch, sought to establish more secure sources of quinine to combat malaria. Analysis of official reports, archival letters and personal correspondence reveal the importance of key individuals and social networks in establishing the Gardens and Cinchona plantations in the Blue Mountains. Despite enthusiasm, fastidious field trials and laboratory assays to establish bark quality of the various species of Cinchona, the commercial venture faltered for a number of reasons, including a fall in international prices through oversupply. Personal contacts were instrumental during involvement of the New York Botanical Garden at Cinchona in the early 20th Century when it became their tropical research station. Chinchona again emerged as a focal point for research in the 1970s, as university scientists from the U.K. used the Gardens as a field station for work on botany, forest ecology and land degradation. The success of the Gardens has been affected by lack of sufficient funding for development and upkeep throughout its history. While the Gardens remain a place of tranquil beauty, there have been several negative environmental impacts associated with the various botanical enterprises undertaken.
... A. lebbeck (L.) Benth. (Fabaceae, Mimosoideae), a tree native to tropical Asia (Little and Wadsworth, 1964), was introduced into the British Caribbean islands in 1782 (Howard, 1954), and has been in Puerto Rico at least since the beginning of the 20th century (Urban, 1905). This shade tree, primarily used ornamentally (Little and Wadsworth, 1964), has escaped cultivation and is now found in a variety of natural and disturbed Puerto Rican habitats. ...
We estimate gene flow and patterns of genetic diversity in Albizia lebbeck, an invasive leguminous tree in the dry forest of southwestern Puerto Rico. Genetic diversity estimates calculated for 10 populations of 24 trees each indicated that these populations may have been formed from multiple introductions. The presence of unique genotypes in the northernmost populations suggests that novel genotypes are still immigrating into the area. This combination of individuals from disparate locations led to high estimates of genetic diversity (He = 0.266, P = 0.67). Indirect estimates of gene flow indicate that only 0.69 migrants per generation move between populations, suggesting that genetic diversity within populations should decrease due to genetic drift. Since migration-drift equilibrium was not found, however, this estimate needs to be viewed with caution. The regular production of pods in this outcrossing species (tm = 0.979) indicates that sufficient outcross pollen is received to insure successful reproduction. Direct estimates of gene flow indicate that between 44 and 100% of pollen received by trees in four small stands of trees (n < 11) was foreign. The role of gene flow in facilitating the spread of this invasive plant species is discussed.
Botanic gardens collect, care for, distribute and display living organisms, preserved plant specimens, and their derived artifacts. As cultural collections, they are used for research, conservation, education and cultivated as living collections that provide tangible and intangible amenity. Curation is an integral consideration of this melee, which informs the content and confers value, through framing the public presentation and interpretation to further the mission of the host organisation. This paper reviews the evolution of western botanic gardens as institutions of power, inferred by knowledge. Exploring the key externalities that have informed their collection acquisitions since their renaissance origin while exploring the epistemic function of the curator’s role. Looking to provide insight into how these collections can better be directed towards the prescient externalities that result from an imbalance of the human social and wider ecological system. The framework of a Sustainable Development is reviewed as the dominant sustainability narrative and top-down transformative solution pathway. While Nature-based Solutions are identified as potential tools to help mitigate and adapt to emerging challenges from anthropogenic climate change and continuing biodiversity loss. Finally, the concept of a Just Transition is identified to inform policy and direct practice from a bottom up and top-down process, to ensure equality for all stakeholders independent of their economic means or collection interests. An approach that could bring benefits for species conservation while providing a new lens for botanic garden research and curatorial practices. These include acknowledging the benefits of Indigenous and western knowledge systems and making intrinsic values work; integrating intrinsic values of the more-than-human. The case for botanic gardens to be considered as centres of knowledge or ‘Hortus apertus’ is made to acknowledge the continual evolution of these institutions, and revaluation of their role in a time of global change.
The British Government-facilitated introduction of breadfruit trees (Artocarpus altilis) from the Pacific to the Caribbean during the late eighteenth century was a notable feat of economic botany, but the identities of the earliest originators of the idea remain unclear. Previous historical scholarship has focused mainly upon the role of Joseph Banks as the prime mover behind the scheme, while more investigative scholarship has identified one of Banks’s correspondents, Valentine Morris, as having made an early suggestion of the idea in writing. This focus on Banks and Morris, however, may have overlooked or understudied even earlier origins of the idea. After discussing several key individuals involved in the inception of the breadfruit project, this article then considers a series of passages on breadfruit in the writings of Voltaire and presents a hypothetical pathway by which those involved in the actual transfer of breadfruit from the Pacific to the Caribbean, including Banks via Morris, may have been influenced by the French philosopher.
This datasheet on Albizia lebbeck covers Identity, Overview, Associated Diseases, Pests or Pathogens, Distribution, Dispersal, Diagnosis, Biology & Ecology, Environmental Requirements, Natural Enemies, Impacts, Uses, Prevention/Control, Management, Genetics and Breeding, Economics, Further Information.
A Historically Contextualized Account of the Baobab Trees (Adansonia digitataL.) of Tobago. A common explanation for the baobab’s (Adansonia digitata) global dispersal is its value as a landscape feature: a tree of “parks and gardens” in places such as Florida and Hawaii, grown for its aesthetic value as a curiosity and ornamental, and for its practical value as a shade tree. While this is no doubt true, it is not the whole story. The history and culture of the baobabs of Brazil and the Caribbean cannot be understood solely within the narrow framework of merely a landscape feature. Based on a field survey done in May 2011 that was informed by a literature review, newspaper articles, interviews, and a radio appeal for information, this study was able to document the distribution of 12 African baobab trees in Tobago, and to identify the cultural status of the species as a fruit tree of Tobago’s traditional home garden food forest. In Tobago, the baobab is called Guinea tamarind, a name that alludes to the fact that the fruits of the baobab and tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) are strikingly similar in taste. The results of this study also shed light on the links between the name Guinea tamarind and spread of the baobab in the Eastern Caribbean, including the timing of origin of the species in Tobago. Un compte rendu historique des Baobabs (Adansonia digitataL.) du Tobago. Une explication ordinaire de l’actuelle dispersion globale du Baobab est sa valeur dans l’agencement de jardins. En bref, un arbre de “parcs et jardins” dans des lieux tels que la Floride et Hawaï, élevé pour sa valeur esthétique comme objet de curiosité et ornemental, et pour sa valeur en tant qu’ arbre ombrageux. Bien que cela soit tout à fait vrai, ce n’en est pas la seule raison. L’histoire et la culture des baobabs du Brésil et des Caraïbes ne peut pas être comprise seulement dans le contexte étroit d’arbre de pépiniériste. Basée sur une étude faite sur le terrain en mai 2011 inspirée par une critique litéraire, articles de journaux, interviews, et une demande radiophonique de renseignements, cette étude a pu documenter la distribution de douze Baobabs au Tobago, et d’identifier le statut culturel des espèces comme principalement des arbres fruitiers traditionnels de la permaculture. Au Tobago, on appelle le baobab le tamarind de Guinée, nom qui fait allusion au fait que les fruits du baobab et du tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) sont de goûts remarquablement similaires. Le résultat de cette étude clarifie aussi les liens entre le tamarind de Guinée et la propagation des baobabs dans les Caraïbes orientales, y compris la chronologie de l’origine des espèces au Tobago.
This paper explores how two very different “heritage” gardens on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent hold a mirror to the rich and complex socio-cultural and botanical history of the wider Caribbean region, reflecting the different approaches to the historic cultivation and exploitation of indigenous and imported plant resources for culinary and medicinal ends. We start with a consideration of a small-scale gardening project in the village of Greiggs undertaken by John Nero, a Garifuna (“Black Carib”). This venture acts as a focus of a local community heritage and educational initiative, and attempts to reflect an emic view on the authenticity of Garifuna culinary and medicinal plant use. The second case, the botanical garden in Kingstown (one of the oldest botanical gardens in the New World and associated with the Scottish botanist Dr. Alexander Anderson d.1811) offers a distinct contrast, and is considered as a modernist, colonialist, and etic project, reflecting the botanical heritage of the Caribbean in the context of a global imperialist crossroads, and as a tool for a formalized scientific research. The two gardens differ in terms of scale, history, and cultural background but both are intimately connected to the themes of migration, colonization, resistance, and post-colonial socio-economic development seen through an ethnobotanical lens on this small and under-researched Caribbean island.
The East India Company was an early version of the multinational corporation and took part in transnational transfers of knowledge. Though Eurocentric in its gathering of items from across the globe, Western Enlightenment also took part in two-way exchanges within continental spaces, across regions, and among peoples from all parts of the globe. The chapter examines how, in Calcutta, Thomas Kyd collected, planted and passed on plants, establishing the basis for the Botanical Gardens connected with the development of urban space in and around Kolkata. This supported the growth of such garden spaces across India, in Kew and beyond in Britain, and included trading specimens with Australia as well.KeywordsBotanical gardensKnowledge transferEast India CompanyCalcuttaThomas Kyd
Little-known sea captains and explorers between 1625 and 1700 obtained from Barbados specimens lor the botanical cabinets of Petiver and Plukenet, and plants to be grown at Hampton Court, Chelsea and Eltham, and by W. Sherard. Sir Hans Sloane also visited Barbados in 1687 and later acquired the earlier specimens now included in the Sloane Herbarium at the British Museum (Natural History). For many of the Barbados plants mentioned in the publications of Plukenet and Sloane, identifications are supplied from a study of the polynomials, common names, illustrations, and specimens available. Such records are often needed for the typification of Linnaean binomials and a iurther search is suggested.A drawing by G. D. Ehret in Hughes' Natural History of Barbados (1750) may represent the first illustration ol the grapefruit (Citrusparadisi Mad.).Francis Mackenzie Humberston, Lord Seaforth, was the governor of Barbados 1800–1806, and responsible for the introduction of living plants to the gardens of England. Many are illustrated in early numbers of Curtis' Botanical Magazine and Andrews' The Botanists Repository.
This paper is a report on a scientific revolution in agriculture that has so far largely escaped the notice of the scholarly community. In the late nineteenth century the Caribbean sugar industry was in a state of crisis caused by competition from the subsidized European sugar beet industry and by disease in the naturally occurring varieties of sugar cane. The revolution consisted of breeding disease-resistant, sucrose-rich varieties to replace the diseased ones. The cane-breeding program, based in Barbados, was successful, and was a major factor in enabling the Caribbean sugar industry to evolve into a modern agribusiness. The Introduction to the paper describes the crisis in the sugar cane industry, sets the cane-breeding program in the context of a “benign kind of agricultural imperialism” that was promoted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and adopted as policy by the British Colonial Office, and notes that cane breeding was part of a wider interest in the improvement of commercially important plants. The greater part of the paper consists of an examination of (a) the cane-breeding program in Barbados and (b) the diffusion of the new varieties to other Caribbean islands. The career of John Redman Bovell, who was in charge of the program in Barbados, receives special attention. The paper draws on archival sources as well as on the specialized literature of cane breeders.
Mass mortalities due to disease outbreaks have recently affected major taxa in the oceans. For closely monitored groups like
corals and marine mammals, reports of the frequency of epidemics and the number of new diseases have increased recently. A
dramatic global increase in the severity of coral bleaching in 1997–98 is coincident with high El Niño temperatures. Such
climate-mediated, physiological stresses may compromise host resistance and increase frequency of opportunistic diseases.
Where documented, new diseases typically have emerged through host or range shifts of known pathogens. Both climate and human
activities may have also accelerated global transport of species, bringing together pathogens and previously unexposed host
populations.
Previous model investigations suggested that changes in orbital forcing and feedbacks associated with northward expansion of the boreal forest were both required to explain the full magnitude of enhanced high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer warming at 6 ka, thus implying that biospheric feedbacks (decreased planetary albedo associated with forest expansion) may be large in the future [Foley et al., 1994; TEMPO (Testing Earth System Models with Paleo-Observations), 1996]. Before the magnitude of past biospheric and other feedbacks can be estimated with confidence, however, the role of realistic high-latitude oceanic forcing (i.e., sea surface temperature (SST) increases and sea ice reductions) should also be considered. Here we review existing paleoceanographic observations that suggest portions of the North Atlantic were up to 4°C warmer than today at 6 ka. We then combine our estimates of mid-Holocene North Atlantic SST and sea ice conditions with new climate model simulations to suggest that a significant portion of high-latitude summer warming at 6 ka in the Northern Hemisphere can be accounted for by altered orbital forcing, SSTs, and sea ice relative to today. Our results underscore the importance of incorporating realistic boundary conditions when using paleoenvironmental data to evaluate the climate system's sensitivity to altered forcing and suggest that high-latitude oceanic feedbacks were major contributors to enhanced high-latitude summer warming in the Northern Hemisphere at 6 ka.
Changes in solar radiation arising from changes in the orientation of
the earth's axis had pronounced effects on tropical monsoons and
mid-latitude climates as well as on ice-sheet configuration during the
last 18,000 years. COHMAP (Cooperative Holocene Mapping Project) has
assembled a global array of well-dated paleoclimatic data and used
general-circulation models to identify and evaluate causes and
mechanisms of climatic change. Comparisons of paleoclimatic data with
the model simulations are important because models provide a theoretical
framework for evaluating mechanisms of climatic change, and such
comparisons help to evaluate the potential of general circulation models
for predicting future climates.
Since 1982, coral reefs worldwide have been subjected to an increased
frequency of the phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Bleaching involves
the dramatic loss of pigmented, single-celled endosymbiotic algae that
live within the gastrodermal cells of a coral host that depends on this
relationship for survival. Prior to the 1980s, and as early as the 1920s
when coral reef research intensified, localized bleaching events were
reported and attributed to factors such as extremely low tides,
hurricane damage, torrential rainstorms, freshwater runoff near reefs,
or toxic algal blooms [Glynn, 1993]. However, these early occurrences
have recently been overshadowed by geographically larger and more
frequent bleaching events whose impact has expanded to regional and
global proportions.
Tubastraea coccinea and Mycetophyllia reesi were found to have ranges that extend throughout the Caribbean, as do most zooxanthellate scleractinian corals found there. Leptoseris cailleti has not yet been found in some areas, but is a rarely reported coral. T. coccinea has not previously been reported from the Gulf of Mexico, but is now known from seven oil platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast, first being sighted in 1991. It has also been seen on four oil platforms in Louisiana, and it is known from oil platforms in the Southern Gulf of Mexico off Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico off of Tuxpan, Mexico where it was first seen about 1977. Since it is not known from the Gulf of Mexico other than on oil platforms, this represents a rapid range expansion following oil platform placements. The range expansion into the Gulf of Mexico is likely due to a preference of this species for artificial substrates, which may be rapidly colonized.
A corrected western Atlantic Holocene sea-level curve was constructed from 145 calibrated 14C and TIMS U-Th dates from shallow Acropora palmata framework and intertidal Rhizopora mangle peat from the Florida Keys, Belize, and the wider Caribbean. Data include both previously published and newly reported coral and peat dates. With the elevations of corals restricted to positions below sea level and those of peats to intertidal and higher levels, a curve bracketed by corals below and peat above effectively delineates the positions of a rising Holocene sea. From 3–11ka, the corrected curve shifts progressively to older calibrated ages, reaching an ~1-kyr increase at –21m MSL (mean sea level). Elevations and calibrated ages of samples from each locality in the wider Caribbean region constitute an important database for future refinement with glacio-hydro-isostatic elevation corrections from 3-D Earth models. In future studies of the history of western Atlantic coral reefs, scientists will be able to relate calibrated radiocarbon dates to this sea-level curve to determine paleo water depths and rates of sea-level rise.
Baseline studies conducted in 1998 document the presence of robust, non-reef-building Acropora cervicornis thickets in shallow (3–7m depth), near-shore waters off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. These thickets thrive in a high-latitude environment, the northernmost in the continental USA, in the midst of potential anthropogenic stressors. Within thickets, the spatial variation in mean percent coral cover, macroalgal cover, scleractinian species richness, density of A. cervicornis juveniles, and the density and size of A. cervicornis colonies and fragments were recorded. Thicket size ranged between ~0.1 and 0.8ha and mean coral cover varied between ~5 and 28%, with A. cervicornis accounting for ~87–97% of all scleractinians. Mean A. cervicornis colony and fragment densities per thicket were 1.3–3.3coloniesm–2 and 0.7–2.8fragmentsm–2, respectively. Recruit densities varied between 0 and 1ind.m–2. White band disease was detected at all thickets, with a mean A. cervicornis colony surface area affected of 1.8%. For all thickets, densities of the corallivorous polychaete Hermodice carunculata ranged between ~18 and 86ind.ha–1, with predation scars affecting <0.2% of the A. cervicornis cover. These flourishing A. cervicornis thickets off Fort Lauderdale provide an interesting counterpoint to the declining and disease-stricken A. cervicornis populations reported in the Florida Keys and wider Caribbean.
In recent decades, the cover of fleshy macroalgae has increased and coral cover has decreased on most Caribbean reefs. Coral mortality precipitated this transition, and the accumulation of macroalgal biomass has been enhanced by decreased herbivory and increased nutrient input. Populations of Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral) and A. cervicornis (staghorn coral), two of the most important framework-building species, have died throughout the Caribbean, substantially reducing coral cover and providing substratum for algal growth. Hurricanes have devastated local populations of Acropora spp. over the past 20–25 years, but white-band disease, a putative bacterial syndrome specific to the genus Acropora, has been a more significant source of mortality over large areas of the Caribbean region.
Paleontological data suggest that the regional Acropora kill is without precedent in the late Holocene. In Belize, A. cervicornis was the primary ecological and geological constituent of reefs in the central shelf lagoon until the mid-1980s. After constructing reef framework for thousands of years, A. cervicornis was virtually eliminated from the area over a ten-year period. Evidence from other parts of the Caribbean supports the hypothesis of continuous Holocene accumulation and recent mass mortality of Acropora spp. Prospects are poor for the rapid recovery of A. cervicornis, because its reproductive strategy emphasizes asexual fragmentation at the expense of dispersive sexual reproduction. A. palmata also relies on fragmentation, but this species has a higher rate of sexual recruitment than A. cervicornis. If the Acropora spp. do not recover, macroalgae will continue to dominate Caribbean reefs, accompanied by increased abundances of brooding corals, particularly Agaricia spp. and Porites spp. The outbreak of white-band disease has been coincident with increased human activity, and the possibility of a causal connection should be further investigated.
Studies on biogeography of stony corals from the eastern Pacific have been conducted in detail only for reef species, and to date there have been no attempts to explain the differences of regional species richness on the basis of oceanographic conditions. The objective of this work was to determine the relationship between deep-water (
Widespread thermal anomalies in 1997-1998, due primarily to regional effects of the El Nio-Southern Oscillation and possibly augmented by global warming, caused severe coral bleaching worldwide. Corals in all habitats along the Belizean barrier reef bleached as a result of elevated sea temperatures in the summer and fall of 1998, and in fore-reef habitats of the outer barrier reef and offshore platforms they showed signs of recovery in 1999. In contrast, coral populations on reefs in the central shelf lagoon died off catastrophically. Based on an analysis of reef cores, this was the first bleaching-induced mass coral mortality in the central lagoon in at least the last 3,000 years. Satellite data for the Channel Cay reef complex, the most intensively studied of the lagoonal reefs, revealed a prolonged period of elevated sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the late summer and early fall of 1998. From 18 September to 1 October 1998, anomalies around this reef averaged +2.2C, peaking at 4.0C above the local HotSpot threshold. In situ temperature records from a nearby site corroborated the observation that the late summer and early fall of 1998 were extraordinarily warm compared to other years. The lettuce coral, Agaricia tenuifolia, which was the dominant occupant of space on reef slopes in the central lagoon, was nearly eradicated at Channel Cay between October 1998 and January 1999. Although the loss of Ag. tenuifolia opened extensive areas of carbonate substrate for colonization, coral cover remained extremely low and coral recruitment was depressed through March 2001. High densities of the sea urchin Echinometra viridis kept the cover of fleshy and filamentous macroalgae to low levels, but the cover of an encrusting sponge, Chondrilla cf. nucula, increased. Further increases in sponge cover will impede the recovery of Ag. tenuifolia and other coral species by decreasing the availability of substrate for recruitment and growth. If coral populations are depressed on a long-term basis, the vertical accretion of skeletal carbonates at Channel Cay will slow or cease over the coming decades, a time during which global-warming scenarios predict accelerated sea-level rise.
Coral reefs are the only ecosystem that is strongly defined by a geological component - most definitions require that the biological community produces its own build-up of calcium carbonate. In terms of "reef-building," the geological record reveals that coral reefs have flourished over the past few million years, particularly during interglacial periods. Based on our observations of modern-day reefs, which are limited to the past few centuries, we tend to link "coral reef health" to carbonate production; however, reef ecosystems face future global-scale environmental changes that may decrease their reef-building capacity. In contrast to past discussions of the factors which determine reef-building potential by a coral reef community, the essential question that arises from this review is: How important is reef building to a coral reef community?
Anthropogenically induced global climate change is likely to have a major impact on marine ecosystems, affecting both biodiversity and productivity. These changes will, in turn, have a large impact on humankind's interactions with the sea. By examining the effects of past climate changes on the ocean, as well as by determining how shifts in physical parameters of the ocean may affect physiology, biochemistry and community interactions, scientists are beginning to explore the possible effects of global climate change on marine biota.
Sea temperatures in many tropical regions have increased by almost 1°C over the past 100 years, and are currently increasing at ~1–2°C per century. Coral bleaching occurs when the thermal tolerance of corals and their photosynthetic symbionts (zooxanthellae) is exceeded. Mass coral bleaching has occurred in association with episodes of elevated sea temperatures over the past 20 years and involves the loss of the zooxanthellae following chronic photoinhibition. Mass bleaching has resulted in significant losses of live coral in many parts of the world. This paper considers the biochemical, physiological and ecological perspectives of coral bleaching. It also uses the outputs of four runs from three models of global climate change which simulate changes in sea temperature and hence how the frequency and intensity of bleaching events will change over the next 100 years. The results suggest that the thermal tolerances of reef-building corals are likely to be exceeded every year within the next few decades. Events as severe as the 1998 event, the worst on record, are likely to become commonplace within 20 years. Most information suggests that the capacity for acclimation by corals has already been exceeded, and that adaptation will be too slow to avert a decline in the quality of the world’s reefs. The rapidity of the changes that are predicted indicates a major problem for tropical marine ecosystems and suggests that unrestrained warming cannot occur without the loss and degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.
There is now ample evidence of the ecological impacts of recent climate change, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments. The responses of both flora and fauna span an array of ecosystems and organizational hierarchies, from the species to the community levels. Despite continued uncertainty as to community and ecosystem trajectories under global change, our review exposes a coherent pattern of ecological change across systems. Although we are only at an early stage in the projected trends of global warming, ecological responses to recent climate change are already clearly visible.
Climate change is expected to alter the distribution and abundance of many species. Predictions of climate-induced population extinctions are supported by geographic range shifts that correspond to climatic warming, but few extinctions have been linked mechanistically to climate change. Here we show that extinctions of two populations of a checkerspot butterfly were hastened by increasing variability in precipitation, a phenomenon predicted by global climate models. We model checkerspot populations to show that changes in precipitation amplified population fluctuations, leading to rapid extinctions. As populations of checkerspots and other species become further isolated by habitat loss, climate change is likely to cause more extinctions, threatening both species diversity and critical ecosystem services.
Over the past 100 years, the global average temperature has increased by approximately 0.6 degrees C and is projected to continue to rise at a rapid rate. Although species have responded to climatic changes throughout their evolutionary history, a primary concern for wild species and their ecosystems is this rapid rate of change. We gathered information on species and global warming from 143 studies for our meta-analyses. These analyses reveal a consistent temperature-related shift, or 'fingerprint', in species ranging from molluscs to mammals and from grasses to trees. Indeed, more than 80% of the species that show changes are shifting in the direction expected on the basis of known physiological constraints of species. Consequently, the balance of evidence from these studies strongly suggests that a significant impact of global warming is already discernible in animal and plant populations. The synergism of rapid temperature rise and other stresses, in particular habitat destruction, could easily disrupt the connectedness among species and lead to a reformulation of species communities, reflecting differential changes in species, and to numerous extirpations and possibly extinctions.
Causal attribution of recent biological trends to climate change is complicated because non-climatic influences dominate local, short-term biological changes. Any underlying signal from climate change is likely to be revealed by analyses that seek systematic trends across diverse species and geographic regions; however, debates within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveal several definitions of a 'systematic trend'. Here, we explore these differences, apply diverse analyses to more than 1,700 species, and show that recent biological trends match climate change predictions. Global meta-analyses documented significant range shifts averaging 6.1 km per decade towards the poles (or metres per decade upward), and significant mean advancement of spring events by 2.3 days per decade. We define a diagnostic fingerprint of temporal and spatial 'sign-switching' responses uniquely predicted by twentieth century climate trends. Among appropriate long-term/large-scale/multi-species data sets, this diagnostic fingerprint was found for 279 species. This suite of analyses generates 'very high confidence' (as laid down by the IPCC) that climate change is already affecting living systems.
We report a massive region-wide decline of corals across the entire Caribbean basin, with the average hard coral cover on
reefs being reduced by 80%, from about 50% to 10% cover, in three decades. Our meta-analysis shows that patterns of change
in coral cover are variable across time periods but largely consistent across subregions, suggesting that local causes have
operated with some degree of synchrony on a region-wide scale. Although the rate of coral loss has slowed in the past decade
compared to the 1980s, significant declines are persisting. The ability of Caribbean coral reefs to cope with future local
and global environmental change may be irretrievably compromised.
AN extensive Acropora palamata (Lamarck) barrier reef flourished off the south-east coast of Florida in an area considerably north of present-day reef development during the early Holocene transgression. Pipeline construction across the continental shelf 40km north of Miami (26°15′15″N, 80°03′52″W) has disclosed this relict shelf-edge reef that is at least 95 km long. Radiocarbon dates indicate that reef growth terminated ∼7,000 yr ago, which coincides with the time of extensive flooding of the continental shelf. This relict barrier reef forms a low (10-m relief) ridge-the crest of which occurs at depths of 15-30 m-extending along the shelf break from Palm Beach southwards to Miami1,2. Present-day fauna on the surface of the ridge include alcyonarians, sponges and scattered coral heads 2,3. The study reported here indicates that the early Holocene provided favourable conditions for reef development in the western Atlantic.
A detailed analysis of stratigraphic indices was undertaken to study paleoclimatic change in the western North Atlantic. Three stratigraphic indicators — carbonate content, Globorotalia menardii, and Uvigerina peregrina — were tested in ten radiocarbon dated cores from the North American continental margin. Of these, carbonate content appears to be most accurate. Carbonate content exhibits two major increases from late glacial time to the present; estimated ages of the average of the mid-point of these increase are 13 200 B.P. and 8600 B.P.An absolute chronology was established down fifteen cores using these stratigraphic indicators and the radiocarbon dates. Sea-surface temperature (SST) estimates derived from planktonic foraminifera were mapped at 2000-yr intervals from 2000 B.P. to 14 000 B.P. SST warms rapidly from 12 000 to 8000 B.P., reaches a maximum between 8000 and 6000 B.P., and gradually cools after 6000 B.P. Bottom waters were monitored with Uvigerina peregrina and dissolution indices. The disappearance of Uvigerina suggests that the water type it lives in (low O2?) started to thin from both the top and bottom by 13 000 B.P. and by 7300 B.P. had disappeared. Fragmentation of planktonic foraminifera was used as an index of dissolution. In most cores dissolution was intense during late glacial time, lessened during early postglacial time and resumed in the late postglacial.
Dating samples of corals and shell from the elevated coral reef terrace on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, indicate that in this region away from active plate boundaries the sea stood at least 3 m above present sea level 132,000 ± 5,000 years ago. There is no geologic evidence of other ancient reef-forming periods on this island.
Climate records stored in sea-floor sediments and glacial ice show that Earth's climate oscillates from warmer to cooler and
back every 2000 years or so. Researchers had detected this oscillation during the last ice age but suspected it might somehow
be driven by the great ice sheets. Now they have learned that the cycle has continued since the ice age, up to the present
day, implying that something else drives it—perhaps a slow variation of the sun.
We quantify the interannual-to-decadal variability of the heat content (mean temperature) of the world ocean from the surface
through 3000-meter depth for the period 1948 to 1998. The heat content of the world ocean increased by ∼2 × 1023 joules between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s, representing a volume mean warming of 0.06°C. This corresponds to a warming rate
of 0.3 watt per meter squared (per unit area of Earth's surface). Substantial changes in heat content occurred in the 300-
to 1000-meter layers of each ocean and in depths greater than 1000 meters of the North Atlantic. The global volume mean temperature
increase for the 0- to 300-meter layer was 0.31°C, corresponding to an increase in heat content for this layer of ∼1023 joules between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have undergone a net warming since the 1950s
and the Indian Ocean has warmed since the mid-1960s, although the warming is not monotonic.
Two of the most important commercial molluscan fisheries along the U.S. Atlantic coast are for ocean quahogs Arctica islandica and Atlantic surfclams Spisula solidissima. Both species are common north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, their southern boundary. This paper describes how historical and possible future changes in ocean temperature have and could impact these species and their fisheries. Ocean quahogs are typically found in cold water and population genetic data from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene indicate that the species range shifted in response to environmental warming and cooling since the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. Rising sea temperature in the future would likely cause an offshore and northward contraction of the ocean quahog's range. Atlantic surfclams are not as sensitive to high temperature as ocean quahogs. However, increased sea temperatures off Delaware and Virginia may be stressful because Atlantic surfclam populations in this region already have relatively low growth rates and meat weights associated with high intraspecific density.
Three parallel submarine terraces found along the southeast coast of Florida, stretching from Miami through Palm Beach County, are described. The central portion of this area near southern Palm Beach County was analyzed with respect to geomorphology, community composition, and zonation from the low-tide mark to a depth of 50 m. Twenty-seven species of scleractinian corals and 39 species of gorgonians are found here and define a typical coral-reef community farther north than has been acknowledged. Gorgonian diversity is maximal at a depth of 15-20 m, while scleractinians are most diverse in shallower water. Studies of gorgonian biomass indicate a trend toward large numbers of small individuals in low-diversity environments, and a smaller number of larger individuals in higher-diversity environments. A mean density of 25.1 colonies/m2 gives these reefs the highest concentration of gorgonians yet recorded in the Caribbean region.
In 1998, tropical sea surface temperatures were the highest on record, topping off a 50-year trend for some tropical oceans. In the same year, coral reefs around the world suffered the most extensive and severe bleaching ( loss of symbiotic algae) and subsequent mortality on record. These events may not be attributable to local stressors or natural variability alone but were likely induced by an underlying global phenomenon. It is probable that anthropogenic global warming has contributed to the extensive coral bleaching that has occurred simultaneously throughout the reef regions of the world. The geographic extent, increasing frequency, and regional severity of mass bleaching events are an apparent result of a steadily rising baseline of marine temperatures, combined with regionally specific El Niño and La Niña events. The repercussions of the 1998 mass bleaching and mortality events will be far-reaching. Human populations dependent on reef services face losses of marine biodiversity, fisheries, and shoreline protection. Coral bleaching events may become more frequent and severe as the climate continues to warm, exposing coral reefs to an increasingly hostile environment. This global threat to corals compounds the effects of more localized anthropogenic factors that already place reefs at risk. Significant attention needs to be given to the monitoring of coral reef ecosystems, research on the projected and realized effects of global climate change, and measures to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Even those reefs with well-enforced legal protection as marine sanctuaries, or those managed for sustainable use, are threatened by global climate change.
The ocean quahog, Arctica islandica (Linnaeus, 1767), is a commercially important bivalve found on continental shelves throughout much of the North Atlantic.
To assess genetic subdivision in this species, we sequenced 385 nucleotides of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) gene from 83 specimens collected from 12 localities between September 1998 and July 1999 (based on preliminary data, the
Internal Transcribed Spacers, ITS, of the nuclear ribosomal repeat were not useful). The cyt b data delimited 11 haplotypes with 0.26 to 8.1% nucleotide difference (coded by 36 variable nucleotide positions) among them.
Only three haplotypes were detected in 39 specimens collected along the USA coastline, compared to five haplotypes from nine
Icelandic individuals. The western Atlantic populations ranging from Penobscot Bay (Maine, USA) to southern Virginia showed
relatively low diversity and appeared genetically similar in that region. Based on the presence of shared haplotypes, AMOVA
analyses, and phylogenetic reconstructions, Icelandic populations appear to be more genetically similar to western Atlantic
populations than eastern Atlantic populations. Specimens from the Faroe Islands (n=4) show mixed affinities. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that a warm Holocene climatic optimum (ca. 7,500
years BP), and not glacial refugia, shaped the present-day genetic structure in A. islandica.
Computer simulations with the COREEF model (Graus et al. 1984) demonstrate that the growth of Caribbean coral reefs will be
unable to match all but the most optimistic predicted rates of sea level rise that global warming is expected to cause over
the next few centuries, and, therefore, these reefs will gradually become more submerged. As they deepen, higher waves will
propagate into back-reef areas, altering the ecological and sedimentological zonation patterns and accelerating the erosion
of leeward shelves and shores. Resuspended sediment will increase the turbidity, causing the demise of sediment-sensitive
corals and possibly entire reef communities.
There is increasing evidence that the preceding Holocene climate was as unstable as the last glacial period, although variations occurred at much lower amplitudes. However, low-latitude climate records that confirm this variability are sparse. Here we present a radiocarbon-dated Holocene marine record from the tropical western Atlantic. Aragonite dissolution derived from the degree of preservation of the pteropod Limacina inflata records changes in the corrosiveness of the bottom water at the core site due to the changing influence of northern versus southern water masses. The δ18O difference between the shallow-living planktonic foraminifera Globigerinoides sacculifer and the deep-living Globorotalia tumida is used as proxy for changes in the vertical stratification of the surface water, hence the trade wind strength at this latitude. We compared our data to high-latitude records of the North Atlantic region. A good agreement is found between the aragonite dissolution and the strength in the Island-Scotland Overflow Water, which contributes significantly to the North Atlantic Deep Water. This suggests that large-scale variations in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation occurred throughout the Holocene. Concurrently, the comparison of our Δδ18O with the GISP2 glaciochemical records points to global Holocene atmospheric reorganizations seen in both the tropics and high northern latitudes.
Biotic responses to Pleistocene climatic fluctuations have traditionally been analyzed in the context of glacial-interglacial cycles on the scale of 10000-100 000 years. However, emerging evidence indicates that short-term, high-amplitude, climatic 'flickers', close to the limits of the resolving power of the fossil record, occurred within the glacial and interglacial substages. Because species shift geographically in response to the climate flickers, community structures are fluid, with changes absorbed ecologically and not mediated macroevolutionarily. The rapidity of these shifts may also explain anomalous fossil assemblages.
Tateyama, near Tokyo (35°N lat.), is the site of the world's most northern occurrence of living hermatypic corals and is also the site (in the Numa beds) of a substantial outcrop of Holocene fossil corals with a radiocarbon date of 5000-6000 yr B.P. This extraordinary co-occurrence provides the opportunity for a detailed reconstruction of environmental change during the Holocene, especially change in sea-surface temperature. This study shows that an increase in sea-surface temperature of <2°C, such as is widely predicted in response to the "greenhouse effect', should result in a greatly increased diversity of corals in high-latitude locations. It also shows that this temperature increase is sufficient to create a "high latitude subtropical' community in a region that appears almost devoid of corals in a fossil sequence. -from Author
Large-scale increases in the heat content of the world's oceans have been observed to occur over the last 45 years. The horizontal
and temporal character of these changes has been closely replicated by the state-of-the-art Parallel Climate Model (PCM) forced
by observed and estimated anthropogenic gases. Application of optimal detection methodology shows that the model-produced
signals are indistinguishable from the observations at the 0.05 confidence level. Further, the chances of either the anthropogenic
or observed signals being produced by the PCM as a result of natural, internal forcing alone are less than 5%. This suggests
that the observed ocean heat-content changes are consistent with those expected from anthropogenic forcing, which broadens
the basis for claims that an anthropogenic signal has been detected in the global climate system. Additionally, the requirement
that modeled ocean heat uptakes match observations puts a strong, new constraint on anthropogenically forced climate models.
It is unknown if the current generation of climate models, other than the PCM, meet this constraint.
Coral reefs, with their millions of species, have changed profoundly because of the effects of people, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Reefs are subject to many of the same processes that affect other human-dominated ecosystems, but some special features merit emphasis: (i) Many dominant reef builders spawn eggs and sperm into the water column, where fertilization occurs. They are thus particularly vulnerable to Allee effects, including potential extinction associated with chronic reproductive failure. (ii) The corals likely to be most resistant to the effects of habitat degradation are small, short-lived "weedy" corals that have limited dispersal capabilities at the larval stage. Habitat degradation, together with habitat fragmentation, will therefore lead to the establishment of genetically isolated clusters of inbreeding corals. (iii) Increases in average sea temperatures by as little as 1 degrees C, a likely result of global climate change, can cause coral "bleaching" (the breakdown of coral-algal symbiosis), changes in symbiont communities, and coral death. (iv) The activities of people near reefs increase both fishing pressure and nutrient inputs. In general, these processes favor more rapidly growing competitors, often fleshy seaweeds, and may also result in explosions of predator populations. (v) Combinations of stress appear to be associated with threshold responses and ecological surprises, including devastating pathogen outbreaks. (vi) The fossil record suggests that corals as a group are more likely to suffer extinctions than some of the groups that associate with them, whose habitat requirements may be less stringent.
Coral bleaching and other diseases of corals have increased dramatically during the last few decades. As outbreaks of these diseases are highly correlated with increased sea-water temperature, one of the consequences of global warming will probably be mass destruction of coral reefs. The causative agent(s) of a few of these diseases have been reported: bleaching of Oculina patagonica by Vibrio shiloi; black band disease by a microbial consortium; sea-fan disease (aspergillosis) by Aspergillus sydowii; and coral white plague possibly by Sphingomonas sp. In addition, we have recently discovered that Vibrio coralyticus is the aetiological agent for bleaching the coral Pocillopora damicornis in the Red Sea. In the case of coral bleaching by V. shiloi, the major effect of increasing temperature is the expression of virulence genes by the pathogen. At high summer sea-water temperatures, V. shiloi produces an adhesin that allows it to adhere to a beta-galactoside-containing receptor in the coral mucus, penetrate into the coral epidermis, multiply intracellularly, differentiate into a viable-but-not-culturable (VBNC) state and produce toxins that inhibit photosynthesis and lyse the symbiotic zooxanthellae. In black band disease, sulphide is produced at the coral-microbial biofilm interface, which is probably responsible for tissue death. Reports of newly emerging coral diseases and the lack of epidemiological and biochemical information on the known diseases indicate that this will become a fertile area of research in the interface between microbial ecology and infectious disease.
In 1998, more than 90% of shallow corals were killed on most Indian Ocean reefs. High sea surface temperature (SST) was a primary cause, acting directly or by interacting with other factors. Mean SSTs have been forecast to rise above the 1998 values in a few decades; however, forecast SSTs rarely flow seamlessly from historical data, or may show erroneous seasonal oscillations, precluding an accurate prediction of when lethal SSTs will recur. Differential acclimation by corals in different places complicates this further. Here I scale forecast SSTs at 33 Indian Ocean sites where most shallow corals died in 1998 (ref. 1) to identify geographical patterns in the timing of probable repeat occurrences. Reefs located 10-15 degrees south will be affected every 5 years by 2010-2025. North and south from this, dates recede in a pattern not directly related to present SSTs; paradoxically, some of the warmest sites may be affected last. Temperatures lethal to corals vary in this region by 6 degrees C, and acclimation of a modest 2 degrees C by corals could prolong their survival by nearly 100 years.
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