Nature & Environment
Climate Change: Some Corals Display an Ability to Adapt to Warmer Waters
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Apr 25, 2014 07:59 AM EDT
Researchers at Stanford found evidence that some corals adapt to the rising ocean temperatures that occur as a result of drastic climate change.
Climate change increases ocean temperature harming the delicate coral reef ecosystem. The most obvious visual effect of climate change on corals via increasing sea temperature has been bleaching. The global change in climate is associated with wide-scale coral bleaching and reed demise. During the past 20 years, half of the world's reef system has been damaged due to factors like overfishing, pollution, increase in heat and acidity due to climate change. Corals known to be key source of fisheries, aquaculture and storm protection die off even if there is a temporary rise in temperature. If this trend continues the environmentalists fear the splendid reef systems may disappear.
But with the latest finding marine biologists at the Stanford University remain optimistic of the fate of a few corals as they found that some of the corals have the ability to survive warmer than average tidal waters.
The study, led by marine biologists Professor Steve Palumbi, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, found that some coral can alter their internal functions to withstand the warmer water 50 times faster than they would adapt through the evolutionary changes alone. This finding gives rise to a new area of possibility for understanding and conserving the corals.
"The temperature of coral reefs is variable, so it stands to reason that corals should have some capacity to respond to different heat levels," Palumbi, director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station said in a statement. "Our study shows they can, and it may help them in the future as the ocean warms."
According to NBC, the study is based on a research conducted on a single coral specie called Acropora Hyacinthus from a remote Pacific Ocean lagoon on Ofu Island at the National Park of American Samoa. This specie of coral is known to be extremely sensitive to environmental changes.
The researchers conducted the study to see how native corals withstand the heat. For this they shifted the coral colonies from warm water to cold water and vice-a-versa.
The researchers noticed that over a period of time the cool pool corals that shifted to warm water became more heat-tolerant. These corals carry certain adaptive genes that turn on and off when the external condition change. The corals used in the study also switched on and off based on the local temperatures.
This study shows that corals protect themselves from the effect of ocean warming using their genetic makeup and physiological adjustments.
"These results tell us that both nature and nurture play a role in deciding how heat-tolerant a coral colony is," Palumbi said. "Nurture, the effect of environment, can change heat tolerance much more quickly - within the lifetime of one coral rather than over many generations."
The researchers are not sure if the adaptation ability is present even in other coral species. But if this finding holds true for most of the corals, then this adaptive ability will add a few more decades and act as a cushion to the gradually withering corals which are facing the brunt of climate change.
The finding was reported in Science.
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First Posted: Apr 25, 2014 07:59 AM EDT
Researchers at Stanford found evidence that some corals adapt to the rising ocean temperatures that occur as a result of drastic climate change.
Climate change increases ocean temperature harming the delicate coral reef ecosystem. The most obvious visual effect of climate change on corals via increasing sea temperature has been bleaching. The global change in climate is associated with wide-scale coral bleaching and reed demise. During the past 20 years, half of the world's reef system has been damaged due to factors like overfishing, pollution, increase in heat and acidity due to climate change. Corals known to be key source of fisheries, aquaculture and storm protection die off even if there is a temporary rise in temperature. If this trend continues the environmentalists fear the splendid reef systems may disappear.
But with the latest finding marine biologists at the Stanford University remain optimistic of the fate of a few corals as they found that some of the corals have the ability to survive warmer than average tidal waters.
The study, led by marine biologists Professor Steve Palumbi, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, found that some coral can alter their internal functions to withstand the warmer water 50 times faster than they would adapt through the evolutionary changes alone. This finding gives rise to a new area of possibility for understanding and conserving the corals.
"The temperature of coral reefs is variable, so it stands to reason that corals should have some capacity to respond to different heat levels," Palumbi, director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station said in a statement. "Our study shows they can, and it may help them in the future as the ocean warms."
According to NBC, the study is based on a research conducted on a single coral specie called Acropora Hyacinthus from a remote Pacific Ocean lagoon on Ofu Island at the National Park of American Samoa. This specie of coral is known to be extremely sensitive to environmental changes.
The researchers conducted the study to see how native corals withstand the heat. For this they shifted the coral colonies from warm water to cold water and vice-a-versa.
The researchers noticed that over a period of time the cool pool corals that shifted to warm water became more heat-tolerant. These corals carry certain adaptive genes that turn on and off when the external condition change. The corals used in the study also switched on and off based on the local temperatures.
This study shows that corals protect themselves from the effect of ocean warming using their genetic makeup and physiological adjustments.
"These results tell us that both nature and nurture play a role in deciding how heat-tolerant a coral colony is," Palumbi said. "Nurture, the effect of environment, can change heat tolerance much more quickly - within the lifetime of one coral rather than over many generations."
The researchers are not sure if the adaptation ability is present even in other coral species. But if this finding holds true for most of the corals, then this adaptive ability will add a few more decades and act as a cushion to the gradually withering corals which are facing the brunt of climate change.
The finding was reported in Science.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone