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Originally posted by saltshop
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Originally posted by RichardH
[The truth is that there are no studies that have demonstrated the narrow temperature tolerance you suggest. There's no experimental evidence that corals living in 84 degree water will die if placed in 78 degree water. None. So until you produce experimental evidence to the contrary, the only accurate statement that you can make is that fewer hard corals are found in cooler waters. Period.
Evidentally approx. 300-400 species do in fact not settle and live at 78 degrees. Why don't you submit a proposal to the scientific community to get the money to do the study? If there is this myth of warm water out there I am sure the grant money should be easy to come by, especially since it will turn 60 years of thought on its head. I highly doubt that you will ever get experimental evidence that the world is indeed round either so go ahead and live in your fantasy world... I can't really help you.
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Then do this. Contact every coral scientist you can find and ask them (as I have) whether any coral will die in 78 degree water. Find an active coral scientist that supports this notion. Since you enjoy quoting Veron, start there. When I suggested that hobbyists believe that corals can't live in 78 degree water, he laughed. In fact every scientist I've spoken with had the same reaction.
The reason you can't find any research proving your point is that all the work has been done at much cooler temperatures. There's plenty of thermal limit research data. It's just not done in water as warm as the coolest reef tanks.
Unfortunately your arguments demonstrate a sad misunderstanding of scientific method. The absence of an organism in a given habitat is not proof that the organism cannot live in that habitat. That has been proved time and time again with the inadvertent transplantation of organisms. Think zebra mussels. Hawaii bans the possession of corals for that very reason. Dr. Bruce Carlson for one believes that Indo-Pacific corals would survive and grow if released in cooler Hawaiian waters. Why not contact him?
Be sure to share with the forum your discussions with the scientists.
Richard Harker