Thread,

 

 

 

"China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade transits every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.​"

 

Was from an article on U.S planned missions to fly within 12 miles of the islands China is building in the South China Sea.

 

All the talk is political in nature, in terms of who has sovereignty over the area.

 

I am wondering what the biologists think about island building.

 

How is it done?

 

It seems China would have to mine the close to the surface coral from nearby areas to gain the material with which to build up a target area.

 

Would this not kill a lot of coral?

 

Have there been any studies that would suggest how this might affect the fish production in the area and hence affect the lives of the billions of folks who eat the fish to survive?

 

TAR

 

I know artificial reefs aid in fish production, but is this kind of island building helpful or hurtful?

Unless by some coincidence reading of this article prompted you to open this thread, I suspect many/most of your questions will be addressed by reviewing this: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/30/world/asia/what-china-has-been-building-in-the-south-china-sea.html?_r=0

 

Summary: The land masses / islets involved are tiny, but since dredging sand from sea floor to build harms reefs, there will be a deleterious impact on fish, though the lands will be used to control fishing lanes so (for China) will still result in a net gain.

iNow,

 

Thank you for the article. Nice. But being tiny land masses does not say how important they were in sustaining what type of fishable schools.

 

I started the thread after reading a different article that spoke nothing about the fish. Just the trade and the oil and gas.

 

Whoever owns the place, its important not to destroy its food generating capacity.

 

Regards, TAR

Edited November 21, 201510 yr by tar

It will likely destroy some food sources. I think a better question is how large the magnitude of that change is and whether new (potentially more productive) ecosystems will come in to replace those that are lost.