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By Charles Sheppard

Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystem in the sea. In some ways they are very robust marine ecosystems, but in other ways, perhaps because of their huge numbers of species, they are very delicate and susceptible to being damaged or killed. On the one hand, healthy reefs are glorious riots of life, and marine scientists have spent several decades unravelling the complicated ways in which they work. On the other hand, at least one third of the world’s reefs have already died — gone for ever in terms of human lifetimes at least — even when the cause of their demise is lifted.

How coral reefs lived and grew right up to the sea surface remained a mystery for years for several reasons. First, where were all their plants? It was known that plants are the world’s food base, yet there were hardly any visible plants, let alone waving fields of them such as the naturalists knew about from their own (mostly cold) Northern shores. The answer is that the main plant base comes from the symbiotic algae living in the cells of reef building corals. This helped answer the second mystery: how could such vibrant reefs live in the nutrient-poor oceans of the tropics? Nutrients, it was known, were needed for plants to grow. But the waters that bathe oceanic reefs in particular were the poorest on Earth in terms of nutrients. The answer was clear once the symbiosis was discovered; there is a very tight cycling of nutrients between the symbiotic components of the coral-algal symbiosis and little ‘leakage’ from the reef into the sea.

There was a third, long running mystery also, namely, how do reefs form? In particular, why do they invariably grow to the surface of the sea from a wide range of depths and, why do they all have rather similar shapes? This was explained in several ways. Firstly it became clear that the Earth’s crust moves, both across oceanic distances over huge time periods, and they move vertically by hundreds of metres. Corals need light (because of their symbiotic algae) so they only live at the contemporary sea level, and the sea level changed hugely over the millennia that corals have lived and made their limestone skeletons. Darwin was the first to deduce this, in particular the importance of growth on subsiding substrates such as volcanoes.

The numerous shapes and kinds of corals, soft corals, and sponges (and many other forms) live together in what has been called a ‘super-symbiosis’ or a ‘super-organism’, terms which, while strictly not true, do give a sense of the intimate linkages that occur between so many of the component groups of species. This may provide one reason why they are, in so many ways, very susceptible to human impacts today. Raised nutrients (e.g. from sewage and shoreline construction) are hugely damaging. Burial of reefs for building on are also fatal to the reefs of course, and, sadly land made by landfill on a reef foundation (something easy to do because reefs are shallow) has a higher economic price when sold for building than the reef did in the first place. Shallow sea and reefs, we might say, become more valuable when they are no longer sea but are converted to expensive, sea-side building land! Eco-nomics and eco-logy have the same root word and should work hand-in-hand, but clearly they don’t, to the detriment of these complex living systems.

Reefs are valuable – but to whom? Reef and beach based tourism forms over half the foreign exchange earnings for many countries. Without reefs to attract tourists, many states would become impoverished; many already are. More importantly (again to whom?) they provide food for huge numbers of coastal dwellers throughout the poorest parts of the world. Not only do fish form the basis for human existence, but so do molluscs, sea cucumbers, octopus… the list is endless. Too many people extracting food from a reef readily collapses the elaborate ecosystem, with the result that there is nothing left for the next year, or the next generation.

Various aspects of climate change are adding to the mix of stresses for reefs. As CO₂ builds up, it warms the oceans, and this has killed off countless areas of reef already or at least added an additional stress. When that gas dissolves in the ocean, the water becomes more acidic, again causing damaging effects, in this case reducing the ability to lay down their limestone skeletons. These are not predicted effects – something for the future. We measure it and know that we are already well along that path.

Coral reefs are a canary in the environmental coal mine, showing us, before any other system can perhaps, what we are doing to the earth today. We know enough of their science now to understand this and avert the problems. What we don’t have is the will to do so. It is no longer a problem of science but of sociology and politics.

Charles Sheppard is Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. His research focuses mainly on community ecology, particularly on ecosystem responses to climate change. He works for a number of UN, Governmental, and aid agencies to advise on topical marine and costal developmental issues. He is the author or editor of 10 books, including The Biology of Coral Reefs (2009) and Coral Reefs: A Very Short Introduction (2014).

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Image credit: Iolanda reef in Ras Muhammad nature park (Sinai, Egypt), By Mikhail Rogov, CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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CJ Ray has tagged me with a most creative meme: I must grab the closest book with more than 123 pages, turn to page 123, go five sentences down, and provide the next three sentences here.

How fortuitous that Bartlett's tome sits nearby; a book on bodily functions occupied a nearer space yesterday.

Here are the words from the required quadrant:

Modestus said of Regulus that he was "the biggest rascal that walks upon two legs."

There is nothing to write about, you say. Well then, write and let me know just this--that there is nothing to write about; or tell me in the good old style if you are well. That's right, I am quite well.

I included a bonus sentence because I like the flip voice of the speaker.

My tag is open--if you like this meme, show us what you've got!

In other news, Stephen Parrish gave me an E for excellence blog award. Thank you, Stephen! I'll add it to my sidebar.

Being noted for excellence is an inspiration to aspire to greater heights. I want to achieve excellence in all my endeavors. I want to be all I can be. Oh, wait, that's the Army. Get an Edge on Life, that's the Army, too, but the other slogan, Be All You Can Be is better. Here are a few more:

It's not just a job. It's an adventure! Navy slogan. I give it an E for excellent!
The Few. The Proud. Marine Slogan. SC for super cool!
Aim High. Air Force. O for okay.
Be Part of the Action. Coast Guard. B for boring. There's gotta be something better than that. Post your alternative in the comments!

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Recently several friends have been on the receiving end of some very bad blurb etiquette and they have requested that I set the world straight about how blurbage should actually work. I live to serve.

What is a blurb? It’s the little quotes that typically appear on the back of a book saying how wonderful it is. For instance here is what Libba Bray has to say about How To Ditch Your Fairy:¹

Justine Larbalestier has a super-cool writing fairy, and I am vastly jealous! Thoroughly entertaining, totally enchanting, wickedly funny, and 110% doos, How To Ditch Your Fairy had me grinning from page one (when I wasn’t laughing out loud). And as soon as I can figure out how to do it I’m going to ask to swap fairies with Justine.

—Libba Bray, New York Times Bestselling author of A Great and Terrible Beauty

A while back I talked at length about my policy on blurbs. The short version is: Yes, I am happy to look at books and if I love them I will blurb them.² Turns out that there are other aspects of blurbage that I did not cover. Mostly because I did not know these things happen. But apparently they do.

1. Never offer to swap blurbs with an author. “Hey, I have a book coming out. If you blurb it I’ll blurb your book!” This is a terrible idea. I may be a blurb purist but all the authors I know only blurb books that they enjoyed reading. They do not blurb books because that person blurbed their book and they especially don’t do that for someone who has never had a book published before and therefore has no track record. Blurbs are supposed to help to sell books but they’re useless if no one knows who the blurber is.
2. If the author who agreed to look at your book does not get back to you DO NOT bug them. There are several reasons for not blurbing a book such as not liking it, not having time to read it, and losing said book. Putting the author in the position of having to explain which reason applies is not fair. No author wants to explain to another why they didn’t like their book well enough to blurb it. Just assume it was lack of time.
3. There is nothing wrong with receiving a blurb from a friend unless of course that’s the only reason they’re doing it. I blurbed Cassie Clare’s City of Bones because I could not put it down. I loved it. The reason I know some of the wonderful writers who have blurbed me—Karen Joy Fowler, Samuel R. Delany, Libba Bray, Holly Black—is because I love their writing. They are my friends because of writing. None of them would blurb my books if they weren’t into them. It’s not worth our reputations to blurb books of varying quality. Every author I know has said no to blurbing a book by a friend. It’s awkward, but not as awkward as having your name eternally on the back of a book you don’t love.
4. Never claim to have a blurb from an author if that is not the case. If the author in question has agreed to look at your book with the possibilty of providing a blurb that DOES NOT mean they are going to blurb you. I looked at several books last year and blurbed none of them. The author has agreed to read your book NOTHING more. If you go around boasting that you have a blurb when you don’t odds are it will get back to the author, who will then be much less inclined to blurb you. This is a very small industry. Word gets around.

This last point leads to a bigger point: Anyone who advises you that lying: claiming blurbs you don’t have, doctoring your publications list, claiming non-existent connections etc. etc. is a good way to get “your foot in the door” is full of it.

Don’t do this. Not ever.

Finding out that someone you have NEVER met is using your name to get ahead is vastly cranky-making. Also in the age of the internet it’s almost impossible to get away with these shenanigans. Google knows when you lie.

I think that about covers it, but if I’ve missed anything do please let me know.

1. My apologies for the skiting, but I love this blurb.
2. In practice I do not blurb many books because I do not love very many.

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Emily Post: Emily's Magic Words; Please, Thank You, and More
by Cindy Post Senning and Peggy Post; illustrated by Leo Landry

HarperCollins

Gee, bet you can't guess those magic words. If you said "back off" "up yours" and "drop dead," you'd be ... wrong. Of course.

Yet I found it hard to snicker for all the wrong reasons while reading how "please" and "thank you" can open doors, "hi" and "bye" can make you friends, "sorry" can fix boo-boos and all that sort of rot. Yeah, yeah, it'll help reinforce basic etiquette. It's nice to be nice, etc.

And it is awfully cute when my toddler looks up at me with her chocolate-smeared face and squeals "thanks, Mommy!" Of course, she also sits behind me in the minivan, where she learned to say "honk honk!" and "schmuck!" while waving only one finger. I'm working on her fine motor skills. Ahem.

I do try hard to be polite. I'm polite when people cut in front of me in line, have more than 15 items in the express checkout, clog my inbox with spam, lecture me on how to raise my kids, etc.

Being polite would be more fun if everyone else did it too. What Emily Post's heirs really need to write is a sequel for how to avoid a murderous rage when the rest of the world doesn't take etiquette lessons.

Rating: *\*\

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I’m employing hyperbole to make a silly point. A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette amuses me. Their most recent post Coworkers, Diagnosing the mental health of your allows you to talk about your crazy coworkers in the comments. Go nuts, you know you want to.

craziness, etiquette, insanity, libet

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