{"id":334492,"date":"2024-06-25T17:05:30","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334492"},"modified":"2024-06-25T17:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:05:31","slug":"denying-the-most-precious-natural-cycles-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334492","title":{"rendered":"Denying the Most Precious \u2013 Natural Cycles (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Jennifer Marohasy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0jennifer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible to ever celebrate regrowth, without first acknowledging injury?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For sure it can happen, coral reefs can bleach, and they can be destroyed by cyclones \u2013 and they can regenerate.  John Brewer reef as an ecosystem was approaching climax, in all its beauty, when it was smashed \u2013 just recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is that a category three cyclone could sit for two hours over the top of one of the most spectacular of all the Great Barrier Reef\u2019s mid-shelf reefs \u2013 for two long hours \u2013 unleashing such destruction and yet the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) monitoring program has no record of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This event is not recorded as a significant change in hard coral cover, or anything else in their newly released \u2018reef-wide hard coral cover\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hard coral cover at John Brewer Reef was recorded as just 23 percent before TC Kirrily and that was a complete misrepresentation.  Hard coral cover is now officially 17 percent in this latest survey \u2013 and so much coral was destroyed in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the reef crest for sure, coral cover went from more than 70 percent to perhaps less than 20 percent in one afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched satellite imagery of the cyclone in real time as it sat directly over John Brewer as a category three on Thursday 25th<\/sup> January 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then at the first opportunity, I visited \u2013 that was three weeks later, on 15th<\/sup> February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I observed how massive plate corals in shades of pink, green and chocolate brown, once beautifully arranged such that they over-lapped, and over-hung a wide and deep crevasse: these corals had been picked-up, flipped-over and smashed-up by the cyclone.  The extent of the destruction was gut wrenching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And at the reef crest large sections were scoured clean of coral, where previously there had been such a diversity of hard corals including staghorn corals of a brilliant purple \u2013 and sea anemones with their bright orange clown fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have received an email just this morning, \u2018The AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program have recently completed the final survey trip of the 2023-24 reporting year \u2026\u2019 . There is mention of John Brewer reef, I click across, there is comment<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In June 2024 reef-wide cover of hard corals was 17.3 %, having remained similar since the impact of crown-of-thorns starfish in 2019. In 2019 Crown-of-thorns starfish were at below outbreak levels.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I am growing to despise the premeditated ignorance that is everywhere in Western Civilization with opinion leaders and scientists often giving-up on accurate reporting of the real state of the natural environment and instead regurgitating their political narrative. In the case of the Great Barrier Reef it can be \u2018record coral cover\u2019 or \u2018all the coral is dying\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never is their mention of natural cycles including concepts such as \u2018regeneration\u2019, \u2018succession\u2019 and \u2018climax\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program and this most recent absurd reporting of the unchanged state of John Brewer Reef is it simply gross incompetence that dates back to the inception of the program nearly 40 years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could it be that they simply have no idea how to sample a structurally diverse ecosystem to meaningfully quantify change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To be continued\u2026\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it possible to ever celebrate regrowth, without first acknowledging injury?<\/p>\n

For sure it can happen, coral reefs can bleach, and they can be destroyed by cyclones \u2013 and they can regenerate. John Brewer reef as an ecosystem was approaching climax, in all its beauty, when it was smashed \u2013 just recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":334493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829381,691820648,691820472,691829380],"class_list":{"0":"post-334492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australian-institute-of-marine-science-aims","9":"tag-coral-reefs","10":"tag-john-brewer-reef","11":"tag-natural-cycles","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0E-UWR03269-copy-2-2048x1368-1.jpg?fit=2048%2C1368&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1p12","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":335871,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335871","url_meta":{"origin":334492,"position":0},"title":"Cyclone Causes Increase in Coral Cover \u2013 If You Believe Their Nonsense Number","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"If you believe Bjorn Lomborg, we have record high coral cover and we can fix climate change. Both are nonsense propositions. In fact, this last year has been devastating for many reef ecosystems because of weather events that are part of natural climate cycles.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0F-P2150129-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0F-P2150129-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0F-P2150129-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0F-P2150129-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0F-P2150129-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":335060,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335060","url_meta":{"origin":334492,"position":1},"title":"Monitoring to Avoid Cyclone Damage \u2013 Denial. Part 3.","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It is purportedly the intension of The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), specifically their Long Term Monitoring program, to detect changes in reef communities at a number of different scales including at the scale of the individual reef, sub-region and between the northern, central and southern Great Barrier Reef.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"coral\"","block_context":{"text":"coral","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coral"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0F-P7101891.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0F-P7101891.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0F-P7101891.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0F-P7101891.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0F-P7101891.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":302517,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=302517","url_meta":{"origin":334492,"position":2},"title":"Cyclone Kirrily Smashed my Favourite Coral Reef","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"If you care enough to know what damage, real damage, from a cyclone looks like at a coral reef, get yourself to Townsville and book a trip with\u00a0Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive\u00a0to John Brewer Reef.","rel":"","context":"In \"colourful fishes\"","block_context":{"text":"colourful fishes","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=colourful-fishes"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01a-Feature-2024-0215-John-Brewer48-2048x1152-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01a-Feature-2024-0215-John-Brewer48-2048x1152-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01a-Feature-2024-0215-John-Brewer48-2048x1152-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01a-Feature-2024-0215-John-Brewer48-2048x1152-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01a-Feature-2024-0215-John-Brewer48-2048x1152-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":334795,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334795","url_meta":{"origin":334492,"position":3},"title":"Denying the Reef Crest \u2013 Before and After the Cyclone","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I first visited John Brewer Reef on 10th\u00a0April 2022, it was being reported in newspapers around the world as badly bleached \u2013 part of a sixth mass coral bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)\"","block_context":{"text":"Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australian-institute-of-marine-science-aims"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0P5060072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0P5060072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0P5060072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0P5060072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0P5060072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":336105,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336105","url_meta":{"origin":334492,"position":4},"title":"Knowing Nature & Ourselves (Part 1.)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best ways to know something about the underwater world, including Great Barrier Reef ecosystems, is to strap an air tank to your back and step into the Coral Sea. 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And I am off again today, diving. There have been phone calls, some about the Underwater Megafauna Competition, and others from those complaining about what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Acropora spp.\"","block_context":{"text":"Acropora spp.","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=acropora-spp"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/020240717_162621_669FC9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/020240717_162621_669FC9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/020240717_162621_669FC9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/020240717_162621_669FC9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/020240717_162621_669FC9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334500,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334492\/revisions\/334500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}