Avoiding Coral Reef Functional Collapse Requires Local and Global Action

oral reefs face multiple anthropogenic threats, from pollution and overfishing to the dual effects of greenhouse gas emissions: rising sea temperature and ocean acidification [1]. While the abundance of coral has declined in recent decades [2, 3], the implications for humanity are difficult to quantify because they depend on ecosystem function rather than the corals themselves. Most reef functions and ecosystem services are founded on the ability of reefs to maintain their three-dimensional structure through net carbonate accumulation [4]. Coral growth only constitutes part of a reef's carbonate budget; bioerosion processes are influential in determining the balance between net structural growth and disintegration [5, 6]. Here, we combine ecological models with carbonate budgets and drive the dynamics of Caribbean reefs with the latest generation of climate models. Budget reconstructions using documented ecological perturbations drive shallow (6-10 m) Caribbean forereefs toward an increasingly fragile carbonate balance. We then projected carbonate budgets toward 2080 and contrasted the benefits of local conservation and global action on climate change. Local management of fisheries (specifically, no-take marine reserves) and the watershed can delay reef loss by at least a decade under "business-as-usual" rises in greenhouse gas emissions. However, local action must be combined with a low-carbon economy to prevent degradation of reef structures and associated ecosystem services

The stability of laminar explosion flames

The paper presents the results of a fundamental experimental and theoretical study of Darrieus-Landau, thermo-diffusive, instabilities in atmospheric explosions, and, on a smaller scale, in laboratory explosions in closed vessels. Pressure dependencies were sought to exploit the leading role of the Peclet number in the phenomena, so that similar Peclet numbers were achieved in both instances. However, in the large atmospheric explosions a large Peclet number was achieved by the distance scale of the fireball, whereas in the closed vessel explosion it was achieved at a higher pressure by a much smaller flame, but because of the higher pressure, one endowed with a small laminar flame thickness. This study covers a much wider range of fuels and of pressures and the dependencies of the phenomena on both of these were carefully studied, although, for the atmospheric explosions, the data only covered propane and methane. The roles of both Markstein and Peclet numbers become clear and give rise to a more fundamental correlating parameter, a critical Karlovitz number, Kcl, for flame stability. This is based on the flame stretch rate, normalised by its muliplication by the chemical reaction time in a laminar flame. The experimetnally measured dependencies of this key parameter on pressure and Markstein number are reported for the first time for so many different fuels. The critical Karlovitz number for flame stability decreases with increase in the strain rate Markstein number. As a result, it is possible to predict the extent of the unstable regime for laminar flames as a function of Masr and pressure. Such data can be used to estimate the severity of large scale atmospheric explosions. As Masr becomes highly negative, the regime of stability is markedly reduced

The abolition of the General Teaching Council for England and the future of teacher discipline

With the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England in the 2011 Education Act, this article considers the future of teacher discipline in England. It provides a critique of the changes to the regulation of teacher misconduct and incompetence that draws on a Foucauldian framework, especially concerning the issue of public displays of discipline and the concomitant movement to more hidden forms. In addition, the external context of accountability that accompanies the reforms to teacher discipline are considered including the perfection of the panoptic metaphor presented by the changes to Ofsted practices such as the introduction of zero-notice inspections. The article concludes that the reforms will further move teachers from being occupational professionals to being organisational professionals marking them apart from comparable professions in medicine and law

Reserve sizes needed to protect coral reef fishes

Marine reserves are a commonly applied conservation tool, but their size is often chosen based on considerations of socioeconomic rather than ecological impact. Here, we use a simple individual-based model together with the latest empirical information on home ranges, densities and schooling behaviour in 66 coral reef fishes to quantify the conservation effectiveness of various reserve sizes. We find that standard reserves with a diameter of 1-2 km can achieve partial protection (50% of the maximum number of individuals) of 56% of all simulated species. Partial protection of the most important fishery species, and of species with diverse functional roles, required 2-10 km wide reserves. Full protection of nearly all simulated species required 100 km wide reserves. Linear regressions based on the mean home range and density, and even just the maximum length, of fish species approximated these results reliably, and can therefore be used to support locally effective decision making

Incorporating uncertainty associated with habitat data in marine reserve design

One of the most pervasive forms of uncertainty in data used to make conservation decisions is error associated with mapping of conservation features. Whilst conservation planners should consider uncertainty associated with ecological data to make informed decisions, mapping error is rarely, if ever, accommodated in the planning process. Here, we develop a spatial conservation prioritization approach that accounts for the uncertainty inherent in coral reef habitat maps and apply it in the Kubulau District fisheries management area, Fiji. We use accuracy information describing the probability of occurrence of each habitat type, derived from remote sensing data validated by field surveys, to design a marine reserve network that has a high probability of protecting a fixed percentage (10-90%) of every habitat type. We compare the outcomes of our approach to those of standard reserve design approaches, where habitat-mapping errors are not known or ignored. We show that the locations of priority areas change between the standard and probabilistic approaches, with errors of omission and commission likely to occur if reserve design does not accommodate mapping accuracy. Although consideration of habitat mapping accuracy leads to bigger reserve networks, they are unlikely to miss habitat conservation targets. We explore the trade-off between conservation feature representation and reserve network area, with smaller reserve networks possible if we give up on trying to meet targets for habitats mapped with a low accuracy. The approach can be used with any habitat type at any scale to inform more robust and defensible conservation decisions in marine or terrestrial environments. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Climate warming, marine protected areas and the ocean-scale integrity of coral reef ecosystems

Coral reefs have emerged as one of the ecosystems most vulnerable to climate variation and change. While the contribution of a warming climate to the loss of live coral cover has been well documented across large spatial and temporal scales, the associated effects on fish have not. Here, we respond to recent and repeated calls to assess the importance of local management in conserving coral reefs in the context of global climate change. Such information is important, as coral reef fish assemblages are the most species dense vertebrate communities on earth, contributing critical ecosystem functions and providing crucial ecosystem services to human societies in tropical countries. Our assessment of the impacts of the 1998 mass bleaching event on coral cover, reef structural complexity, and reef associated fishes spans 7 countries, 66 sites and 26 degrees of latitude in the Indian Ocean. Using Bayesian meta-analysis we show that changes in the size structure, diversity and trophic composition of the reef fish community have followed coral declines. Although the ocean scale integrity of these coral reef ecosystems has been lost, it is positive to see the effects are spatially variable at multiple scales, with impacts and vulnerability affected by geography but not management regime. Existing no-take marine protected areas still support high biomass of fish, however they had no positive affect on the ecosystem response to large-scale disturbance. This suggests a need for future conservation and management efforts to identify and protect regional refugia, which should be integrated into existing management frameworks and combined with policies to improve system-wide resilience to climate variation and change