Marine Biologists Discover Coral Reefs Resilient To Climate Change

Nature

With climate change comes the destruction of a myriad of life forms. The ocean has been affected too. The Great Barrier Reef has seen its fair share of changes. Tourists say that it’s no longer as majestic as it once was. Because of what’s been happening, scientists have been searching for ways to save the ocean.

Right now, it’s not the only portion of the ocean that’s getting affected. They have seen the downward spiral all over the world. The oceans are getting warmer, and some corals are simply unable to survive in such conditions. Well, there is hope as they’ve discovered how some species are actually more resilient.

In their need to save the planet, these experts have studied marine life and closely observed how they are able to cope with the changes. This was when they were able to make a startling discovery. One that could give hope to the rest of the world.

Thanks to the help of a group of diligent marine biologists, they were able to subject two of the most common coral species to a +2°C aquarium for a span of two years. Mother Nature showed them just how amazing she is and that she still has a trick or two up her sleeve. These scientists were amazed at what they discovered.


Environmentalists and concerned citizens have been repeating a specific mantra, and that is to keep the planet from warming 2°C over the next thirty years. They have also zoned in on looking deeper into the vulnerable coral reefs that live in the warm oceans. They didn’t know what to do at first, but the new experiment on corals has given them hope and shed some light on its ability to potentially adapt to what’s happening.

These marine biologists went about to plan the longest coral resilience experiment ever done. This was with the help of coral expert Rowan McLachlan and her colleagues. They made use of a hammer and chisel to collect samples of common corals from the reefs that were found around Oahu, Hawai’i.

Different species such as rice coral, finger coral, and lobe coral were then transported with the use of a 35-gallon aquarium on Coconut Island. They filled this with sand, rubble, fish, and plankton. Then, they exposed the corals to the outside life to emulate the experience that is similar to the weather conditions they would be exposed to if they were still on the ocean floor.

Porites compressa (finger coral) and Porites lobata (lobe coral) had the highest survivorship and coped well under future ocean conditions with positive calcification and increased biomass, maintenance of lipids, and the capacity to exceed their metabolic demand through photosynthesis and heterotrophy,” McLachlan et al. had written in their corresponding paper on the experiment. The details of which have been published in Nature.


“We saw this long-term arc where you see stress responses, but after long enough there was acclimatization,” shared Andréa Grottoli. She’s a coral biogeochemist at Ohio State and she was also the senior author of the paper. She spoke to National Geographic about this and added, “They weren’t just struggling. Two of the three species were doing really well.”

Interestingly enough, the reef monitors who lived in Hawai’i also told National Geographic that the experiment perfectly synched with what they are observing in the corals that were scatted around the islands. They believe that if they can be protected from pollution and other man-made disturbances that have happened, they should be resilient enough in the coming decades when climate changes will be most observable and tangible.

This piece of news gives hope for those who have shown concern for reefs around the world. The lobe coral has been the pioneer species. These have been the first of its kind of coral used to start building a reef. As for finger coral, these make good substitutes as well and they’re not only found in Hawai’i but throughout the reefs that are in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well.

The reefs used can act as decent species for coral reef restoration projects. Admittedly, this is a yet-unexplored potential way to alleviate and slow down coral loss by actively and quickly expanding the coral populations everywhere. This new option would have been scoffed at a decade ago, and Grottoli admits that this wouldn’t have been considered at all. Thanks to the new findings, there are new ways to save the oceans.

 

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