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Science

Killing Rats Could Save Coral Reefs (bbc.co.uk) 122

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
The much maligned rat is not a creature many would associate with coral reefs. But scientists studying reefs on tropical islands say the animals directly threaten the survival of these ecosystems. From a report: A team working on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean found that invasive rats on the islands are a "big problem" for coral reefs. Rats decimate seabird populations, in turn decimating the volume of bird droppings -- a natural coral fertiliser. The findings are published in Nature. Scientists now advocate eradicating rats from all of the islands to protect these delicate marine habitats.
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Killing Rats Could Save Coral Reefs More

Killing Rats Could Save Coral Reefs

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  • Is "fertilizer" the problem (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Thursday July 12, 2018 @04:17AM (#56933262) Homepage

    If "fertilizer" is the problem for coral reefs then why can't we fertilize them ourselves?

    • The rats are an invasive species, and this is just one of many problems they cause. There are plenty of reasons to eradicate them.

      We can wipe them out with a gene drive [reuters.com].

    • Just how do you propose to apply the fertilizer?

      There are a LOT of small islands out there

      OH. And how do you propose to create the fertilizer?

      The birds are free

    • If "fertilizer" is the problem for coral reefs then why can't we fertilize them ourselves?

      I was thinking something similar. I've heard a lot recently about too much fertilizer runoff killing the coral reefs. Maybe the bird droppings are somehow different than farm fertilizer and human waste but I don't think so. Before modern fertilizer, "mining" bird dung and bat dung was a common way to get fertilizer for farmers.

    • If you start a program to fertilize coral reefs, and it turns out the fertilizer has other unintended consequences (like causing algal blooms [sciencedaily.com]), you become financially and possibly criminally liable for those consequences.

      If birds fertilize coral reefs with their droppings, and their droppings have other unintended consequences, nobody sues the birds in court.

      Gives multiple meanings to the phrase, "shit happens."

  • good news for us (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Greytak ( 5461964 )
    I'm relieved, I thought humans were responsible for the damage done to the coral reef.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Despite what Walt Disney would have you believe those rats didn't build their own little boats.

      On the other hand rat poison is numerous magnitudes cheaper than carbon sequestration.

      • Rat poiison is not specific to rats. Laying down that much rat poison, near human food supplies, is likely to cause many other local ecological disasters, especially for any rat predators.

    • It might actually be easier to do something about global warming that to exterminate the rats.
      • I don't think it will be easy, but New Zealand has been making a lot of inroads into removing invasive species, rats being on of the primary examples. Granted, a lot of this has been through going after low-hanging fruit like small isolated islands first, but it is being done successfully. I suspect that as we advance our knowledge, we'll get better at doing it too. I know that one of the approaches that has been used with mosquitoes is to release some sterile or genetically modified males that result in no

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Don't be asinine. Humans brought the rats to the islands, so the rat problem was caused by humans.

      There is also human caused climate change which is changing the water temperature and acidifying the oceans, but that is a entirely different thing.

    • I'm relieved, I thought humans were responsible for the damage done to the coral reef.

      Who do you think introduced the rats to the islands?

  • Just think what killing POTUS could do. ** ducks**
  • What will happen once we kill all of the rats? The problem is nobody knows or has thought to study what might happen if we kill off or poison the rats. Furthermore, how can scientists definitively say for certain that rat droppings are the cause of the dying coral reef. It could be far more complex a single reason.

    • Uh, rats are an invasive species on the islands in question, and we in have HAVE studied what happens when you get rid of them on such an ecosystem.
      https://www.livescience.com/40... [livescience.com]

      If you read the article, it has nothing to do with rat droppings, it has to do with the loss of bird dropping when rats are established as an invasive species complicating birds nesting (or at least nesting successfully) on such islands.

    • What will happen once we kill all of the rats? The problem is nobody knows or has thought to study what might happen if we kill off or poison the rats.

      The islands continue like they had for millennia until we introduced the rats

      Furthermore, how can scientists definitively say for certain that rat droppings are the cause of the dying coral reef.

      They're not saying that at all. Please RTFS. All the information didn't even require clicking on a link.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Is it not the really big rats? (Score:3)

    by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Thursday July 12, 2018 @06:24AM (#56933504)

    Rats are rapacious omnivores, much like the humans who bring them across oceans in their cargo ships and the humans who concentrate food and waste that the rats can grow their population with. So I'm afraid the rats are a logical result of the much higher human population density near reefs: the local ecology near the reefs fed a much smaller human population without modern agriculture and food imports And I'm afraid that humans do not tolerate the carnivores of rats: they tend to be big enough to threaten our young and our livestock, and many make attractive trophies.

    Rats have been co-evolving with humans very successfully. They're going to be very difficult to alter our ecological balance with.

    • Re:Is it not the really big rats? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Thursday July 12, 2018 @06:34AM (#56933542)
      Not all of the islands threatened by rats are populated, or at least populated heavy enough/industrialized enough for people to be a problem for the reefs. But all it takes to infest an island with rats is a nearby shipwreck 200-300 years ago where some rats survived and washed ashore. The rats would have no or few natural predators (as neither did the birds who lived there until the rats showed up) allowing them to thrive and threaten native species.

      • Nothing a few kittehs can't fix. Or wouldn't be had that species not domesticated humans to feed and serve them, degenerating to lazy bastards.

        • Re:Is it not the really big rats? (Score:5, Funny)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Thursday July 12, 2018 @08:27AM (#56933884)

          Nothing a few kittehs can't fix.

          Except the cats would kill the birds too. So you would have to introduce dogs to keep the cats under control as well. Which means adding cars to keep the dog population from getting out of hand. Then the car population gets too big so you have to introduce hipsters to reduce the number of cars. And the last thing anyone wants are islands overrun with hipsters.

          • And the last thing anyone wants are islands overrun with hipsters.

            While I was quite sure someone will post this joke, your particular take is awesome. You, sir, are teh winrar!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by boskone ( 234014 )

            obligatory
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

            maybe eagles? they can kill rats and some of the other birds, but they won't eat all of the seagulls.

          • Except the cats would kill the birds too. So you would have to introduce dogs to keep the cats under control as well. Which means adding cars to keep the dog population from getting out of hand. Then the car population gets too big so you have to introduce hipsters to reduce the number of cars. And the last thing anyone wants are islands overrun with hipsters.

            Cats chase a lot of birds but catch relatively few.

          • Nothing a few kittehs can't fix.

            Except the cats would kill the birds too. So you would have to introduce dogs to keep the cats under control as well. Which means adding cars to keep the dog population from getting out of hand. Then the car population gets too big so you have to introduce hipsters to reduce the number of cars. And the last thing anyone wants are islands overrun with hipsters.

            Thats the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H hipsters simply freeze to death.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rob Bos ( 3399 )

          Historically, cats have preferred the fat and lazy seabirds to the hard-to-catch and wily rats with big teeth.

    • Rats have been co-evolving with humans very successfully. They're going to be very difficult to alter our ecological balance with.

      Uh, the 14th Century has one hell of a different view when it comes to rats "co-evolving with humans very successfully". Tends to happen when a plague perpetuated by them wipes out 20% of the world population.

      New Zealand has had their fair share of fun with rats too.

      • And feral cats for that matter as well.

  • *plink* eeeeeek! (Score:3)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Thursday July 12, 2018 @06:27AM (#56933514) Homepage Journal

    And of course, it's good clean fun for all the family!

  • The rats aren't the problem (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The rats are not the problem here, it is the humans that brought them and provide for them with an easy habitat to thrive in. Humans leave garbage and food waste literally everywhere they go, because they are the most disgusting, unhygienic animals on this entire planet. They destroy the local ecosystem wherever they go, replacing it with a myriad of detrimental species, garbage, and waste.

    Get the invasive humans off the islands (and the rats they brought with them), and the problem goes away. If the humans

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Get the invasive humans off the islands

      We're working on it. A good 100 meter rise in the sea level should drive most of them out.

    • Humans are undoubtedly what started the problem, however removing the humans from the area doesn't mean the rats magically pack up and leave as well. While rats are quite happy to live around humans and take advantage of our proclivities, they don't need us to flourish. Rats thrive where they have abundant food sources and little to no predators to contend with. There have been cases of removing rats and keeping them out, but this has thus far relied on natural barriers and a very high level of awareness.

  • Bleaching occurs because the coral expels its zooxanthellae This happens (mainly, I'm told) due to the water warming.

    Question: What is the evolutionary benefit to the coral?

    What is the benefit of losing the symbiont and (eventually) dying?

    • Well, it's like to ask why not remove some obscure code from software project when even senior developers don't know how the entire code is working.

  • Even if the New York subway doesnât have coral reefs.

  • Palestinians.

  • We just need to trap the rats, let them starve and then eat each other. Then we go and release the sole surviving, now cannibal, rat back into the population...

  • Like mice? :P

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