Coral Reefs May Combat Global Warming with a 'Balanced Diet'

A balanced diet isn't just good for people; it's also good for corals. Scientists have found that a nutrient-rich, balanced diet is beneficial to corals during stressful thermal events, which could be triggered by climate change.

As our world's oceans continue to warm, it's important to know the best way to allow corals to flourish. A combination of ocean acidification and coral bleaching is causing reefs to suffer as corals die off. That's why researchers took a closer look at what nutrients were most beneficial to corals during elevated temperature conditions.

In this latest study, the scientists fed corals two types of nutrients. First, they looked at the inorganic nutrients of nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients can common be found in the ocean as a result of fertilizers and sewage runoff. Then, the researchers looked at the organic nutrients of zooplankton, which are tiny animals in the ocean that coral are known to feed on.

The corals that were fed these nutrients were exposed to varying temperatures, including normal temperature conditions and thermal stress conditions. Some of the corals also received organic nutrient enrichment of tiny ocean animals called zooplankton during the laboratory experiment.

So what did they find? It turns out that excess nitrogen alone and zooplankton made high-temperature bleaching events worse. In contrast, excess nitrogen in combination with extra phosphorus and zooplankton afford the coral resilience to bleaching.

"Excess nutrients from land sources and thermal stress will likely occur in concert in the future so it's important to assess them together," said Erica Towle, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Incorporating nutrient levels in thermal bleaching models will likely be very important for coral reef managers in the future as ocean waters warm."

The findings are published in the journal Limnology & Oceanography.

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