Photo: Hiroko Yoshii // Unsplash
The health of coral reefs has been a topic of discussion, debate, and research for years now. A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters has brought some fresh insight into our understanding of how certain coral is adapting to the warming oceans, a prominent trend around the globe. Apparently, some reefs are more resilient than we may have thought. In fact, researchers say certain reefs are actively adapting to warming oceans and the stresses of climate change on them has lessened even as water temps continue to rise.
Researchers went back almost 20 years, where a series of marine heatwaves devastated the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) in 2002 and 2003. Another series of heatwaves hit PIPA, located in the Southern Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia, in 2009 and 2001. And then again in 2015 and 2016 with a massive heatwave that put twice as much stress on corals. Using daily satellite data they were able to observe how each heatwave impacted the coral. The reefs recovered between each heatwave, which isn’t spectacular or unexpected, but the die-off for coral was far less devastating than expected over time. Their report suggests that the new corals that are repopulating the reef in between heatwaves are more heat-tolerant offspring – while other reef species around the globe fail to recover at all following a heatwave.
“We’re seeing areas that were devoid of corals after 2002-2003 that are now flourishing with most of the original species,” said author Michael Fox, a postdoctoral scientist and coral reef ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
WHOI researchers believe the PIPA study can teach us how to manage other reefs while the oceans continue to warm.
“We’re in a race against time, so anything that increases the chances that corals are going to make it is really good news,” commented Nancy Knowlton, the Sant Chair in Marine Science Emerita at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She wasn’t part of the study. “The corals are doing their part,” she said. “We have to do ours.”
