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From: rosentha@sierra.Stanford.EDU (Peter A. Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: sci.aquaria,sci.bio,sci.environment
Subject: Coral reefs and global warming
Keywords: Carbon fixation
Message-ID: <719@sierra.stanford.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 90 23:36:42 GMT
Lines: 23


	It is well known that healthy coral reefs are quite
effective at fixing carbon dioxide into calcium carbonate skelatons.
They are also remarkably productive ecosystems that support enormous 
diversity in an astoundingly nutrient poor environment.  I would
like to start some discussion on the possible importance 
of coral in fixing C02 from the atmosphere.


	Some interesting questions:  

	1.  Is the current area of coral reef a significant carbon
eater compared to other sinks such as forests?

	2.  How large an area of reefs would we need to balance the
industrial outputs of society?

	3.  Are there any ways of artificially creating reefs to
increase their area?  Substrates out in the open ocean?  How would
one anchor them?  The open ocean is a relatively poor producer because
of a lack of substrate, but in the tropics it gets very intense
insolation.  Platforms floating a few meters beneath the surface
could be potentially very productive.