Coral "shuffle" helps reefs survive warmer world: study

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | Friday, July 14, 2007

[Daralundy]

Coral "shuffle" helps reefs survive warmer world: study

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef might be able to survive warming sea temperatures, as a result of global warming, better than first thought because some coral algae are more heat tolerant, Australian scientists said.

Coral geneticists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science have found that many corals store several types of algae, which can improve their capacity to cope with warmer water.

"This work shatters the popular view that only a small percentage of corals have the potential to respond to warmer conditions by shuffling live-in algal partners," said institute marine scientist Madeleine van Oppen.

"Simply, when conditions warm the more heat-tolerant algae provide back-up, become more abundant. Some algal types impart greater resistance to environmental extremes," van Oppen said in a statement received on Friday.

Since the 1980s, reefs around the world have been devastated by coral bleaching, where temperature increases of just 1 degree Celsius can cause coral animals to expel the photosynthetic algae that keep them supplied with nutrients.

Numerous scientific studies have warned that global warming of the ocean was threatening the very existence of reefs, such as the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian scientists said their study had found that coral has the ability to "shuffle" the algae, maximizing nutrients depending on water temperature. They discovered heat-resistant algae by examining the DNA of different types of coral.

But many marine scientists have argued that "back-up" algae were infrequent because of the small number of corals that were shown to host several types of algae.

"The potential for this hidden back-up type (algae) to step in and provide nutrition to coral during heat stress is far greater than currently thought," said Jos Mieog, a PhD student involved in the coral study.

The Australian scientists said this "shuffle" ability might explain why coral reefs have been able to survive for thousands of years during various climate changes.

"This flexibility discovered in our research is important in understanding the past evolutionary success of these coral species and their future survival capacity in the face of a changing climate," said van Oppen.

[Daralundy]

It never made sense that coral which is found in the hot areas of the earth would be that sensitive to heat. Likely other things going on.

[Jeff Chandler]

Coral Shuffle, not to be confused with Curly Shuffle.

[Sherman Logan]

The Australian scientists said this "shuffle" ability might explain why coral reefs have been able to survive for thousands of years during various climate changes.

[qam1]

Coral bleaching is a stupid argument to begin with since corals have been on the planet for about 600 million years now and have survived way higher warming periods then the one we are going through now,

But yep, Once again they are lying linking it to global warming. It's an environmental problem alright but it has nothing to do with global warming. The real culprit is increasing outbreaks of these guys

The Crown of Thorns Starfish which eats coral leaving behind large dead bleached areas.

These outbreaks occur because of fertilizer & sewage run-off which causes algae blooms in which the juvenile CoT starfish feed on as well as its predators are being over-fished and over-harvested, both of which lead to population explosions of the CoT Starfish which decimate the corals

Relative links

Crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef"

CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH PLAGUE LINKED TO RUN-OFF(CRC Reef Research Centre)

[kinoxi]

Since the 1980s, reefs around the world have been devastated by coral bleaching, where temperature increases of just 1 degree Celsius can cause coral animals to expel the photosynthetic algae that keep them supplied with nutrients.

Given that year over year temperature variations in ANY climate regularly exceed this 1 degree limit it is amazing the Earth isn't a 'human induced' wasteland by now... I guess they need a grant to study their theory ...

[Right Wing Assault]

corals have been on the planet for about 600 million years now and have survived way higher warming periods then the one we are going through now

The Algorians can't understand such logical explanations. They probably think Algore invented coral back in the 90s.

[TigersEye]

IOWs; everything is in a perpetual state of change, life adapts to changes and scientists have noticed yet another example of it.

Woo ... hoo.

[maine-iac7]

alGore will be deeply saddened