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Wed, 24th Jun 2020 14:33:00 |
The super-corals of the Red Sea |
As seas warm and acidify with climate change, corals worldwide are bleaching – but in the north of the Red Sea there is a ray, or rather reef, of hope.
Images of white, skeletal coral reefs are becoming an increasingly bleak, if familiar sight. Massive coral bleaching events are becoming more common around the world, as a result of the rapid pace of climate change. In the period from 2014 to 2017, about 75% of the planet's tropical coral reefs suffered heat-induced bleaching during a global ocean heatwave.
A "bleached" coral is a stressed-out coral that, when triggered by environmental changes such as pollution and warming waters, has evicted its beneficial, energy-producing algae. Without these symbiotic algae, the coral loses its colour and appears white. Recovery from bleaching can be possible, but it's not guaranteed. More frequent bleaching events mean less time for the corals to bounce back. Those that don't recover, die – and their ecosystem can collapse with them.
"As we see the frequency and intensity of mass bleaching events increasing, the situation is becoming more dire," says Andréa Grottoli, a professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University. Grottoli's research is focused primarily on the effects of climate change on coral reefs and what it is that makes some corals more resilient than others. "The models are projecting catastrophic losses in reefs by the end of this century." Indeed, the majority of the world's coral reefs are predicted to die by the end of this century, if not sooner.
Despite sea temperatures rising faster than the global average rate, no mass bleaching events have occurred in the northern Red Sea – Jessica Bellworthy
Yet, at the northern end of the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aqaba there is a ray – or, rather, reef – of hope.
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