CUBAN TRANSITIONS

Coral reefs are fragile, slow growing but complex communities containing great biodiversity and serve as a source of food and habitat for marine life. Corals are able to thrive in nutrient poor water along the equator because they, the animal, hold a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae (yes, a plant lives inside an animal!!). The coral exchange some of their waste products for the basic building blocks of nutrients. In many areas agricultural runoff, overfishing, siltation, the occasional oil spill, but perhaps most dangerous, rising sea temperatures threaten that crucial symbiotic relationship.

A rise of just 2°C can make corals go from this:

to this:

in a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Bleached corals are more susceptible to infections and are also very easily destroyed by passing storms. The destruction of the reefs has cascading consequences for the rest of the ecosystem. In the last several decades there has been a slow but steady increase in sea water temperatures  leading to the destruction of many reef systems. In 2002, for example, nearly 60% of the Great Barrier Reef suffered bleaching. The same pattern can be seen in the Pacific, the Florida Keys and in and around the Caribbean.

Characteristically of Cuba, Cuban corals seem to be an anomaly, stuck in a time warp that amazes coral biologist around the world. Species of fish and corals that were largely thought to be on the verge of extinction are thriving in Cuba’s reef system. Despite having to endure the same impact of rising sea temperatures, Cuban corals are healthy because they have been spared from the environmental impacts of overdevelopment, runoff from chemical fertilizers, marine tourism and overfishing that afflict so many other reef systems globally.

In our study of Cuba’s conservation policies one common theme that has emerged is whether the idea of conservation developed accidentally, a product of a US embargo, or whether the revolution seriously considered environmental and ecological issues something to be addressed. Certainly one must acknowledge the efforts of the revolution, in 1997 the Cuban government banned fishing over a 386-square-mile section of the area around Los Jardines de la Reina, creating the largest marine reserve in the Caribbean, but would the possible influx of American capital change the approach of the Cuban government? If the embargo was lifted, would Cuban corals suffer the same fate of the corals in the Florida Keys?

Certainly scientist would hope that the Cuban government would continue its conservation policies and sustainability practices if the embargo was lifted because as American scientist David Guggenheim states, in Cuba “we’ve got another chance to look at these reefs the way they used to be” and better understand the interactions that make Cuban corals super corals as compared to the rest of the world.

As a student who conducts her own research of coral symbiosis right here at Vassar, I can only hope that Cuban corals hold the key to saving the rest of the corals.

Sources:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121177851

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/09reefs.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57344527/the-gardens-of-the-queen/