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Phoenix666 writes:

Coral Reefs Show Resilience to Rising Temperatures:

Rising ocean temperatures have devastated coral reefs all over the world, but a recent study in Global Change Biology has found that reefs in the Eastern Tropical Pacific [ETP] region may prove to be an exception. The findings, which suggest that reefs in this area may have adapted to heat stress, could provide insights about the potential for survival of reefs in other parts of the world. The study was published in print in July.

"Our 44-year study shows that the amount of living coral has not changed in the ETP," said James W. Porter, the paper's senior author. "Live coral cover has gone up and down in response to El Niño-induced bleaching, but unlike reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean and Indo Pacific, reefs in the ETP almost always bounce back," he said.

[...] They hypothesized that several key factors allowed the ETP reefs to bounce back.

First, corals in this area are mostly pocilloporids, a type of coral that reproduces at high rates. They also contain species of symbiotic algae that are particularly tolerant to extreme temperatures.

Patterns of weather and geography in the ETP may also play a role. Areas having heavier cloud cover or upwelling of cooler waters may survive locally and be able to reseed more severely affected reefs elsewhere.

Another important factor may be "ecological memory," meaning that ETP corals may have become conditioned to heat stress over the years, through mechanisms such as genetic adaptation and epigenetic inheritance, whereby parents pass on these survival traits to their offspring.

Journal Reference:
Mauricio Romero‐Torres, Alberto Acosta, Ana M. Palacio‐Castro, et al. Coral reef resilience to thermal stress in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, Global Change Biology (DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15126)

Encouraging news, but will coral reefs in other regions eventually follow suit?

Original Submission