Publications by authors named "A T Banaszak"

Article Synopsis
  • Atlantic reef-building corals are declining due to climate change, disease, pollution, and human activities, prompting a reassessment of their extinction risk under the IUCN Red List.
  • The latest evaluation shows an increase in the percentage of species at high extinction risk, with nearly 46% to 54% of shallow water corals now classified as threatened, compared to 15% to 40% in 2008.
  • Although there's been a slight improvement in coral coverage over historical data, projections indicate that severe bleaching events could significantly threaten the future survival of 26 species, which are now labeled as Critically Endangered.
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Assisted sexual coral propagation, resulting in greater genet diversity via genetic recombination, has been hypothesized to lead to more adaptable and, hence, resilient restored populations compared to more common clonal techniques. Coral restoration efforts have resulted in substantial populations of 'Assisted sexual Recruits' (i.e.

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Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) has caused widespread coral mortality in the Caribbean Region. However, how the disease presence alters the microbiome community, their structure, composition, and metabolic functionality is still poorly understood. In this study, we characterized the microbial communities of the tissues of apparently healthy and diseased SCTLD colonies of the species Siderastrea siderea, Orbicella faveolata, and Montastraea cavernosa to explore putative changes related to the presence of SCTLD.

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The protection of Earth's stratospheric ozone (O) is an ongoing process under the auspices of the universally ratified Montreal Protocol and its Amendments and adjustments. A critical part of this process is the assessment of the environmental issues related to changes in O. The United Nations Environment Programme's Environmental Effects Assessment Panel provides annual scientific evaluations of some of the key issues arising in the recent collective knowledge base.

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There are close links between solar UV radiation, climate change, and plastic pollution. UV-driven weathering is a key process leading to the degradation of plastics in the environment but also the formation of potentially harmful plastic fragments such as micro- and nanoplastic particles. Estimates of the environmental persistence of plastic pollution, and the formation of fragments, will need to take in account plastic dispersal around the globe, as well as projected UV radiation levels and climate change factors.

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