Coral

Coral reefs have been seeking new pastures, as rising temperatures heat up their natural habitats.

Over the last four decades, coral reefs have been progressively shifting their homes from equatorial waters to more temperate regions.

The reason? Climate change.

“Climate change seems to be redistributing coral reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species,” said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and lead author of the paper on the topic.

Reef-building staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) was abundant and widespread throughout the Caribbean and Florida until the late 1970s.  The fast-growing coral formed dense thickets in forereef, backreef, and patch-reef environments to depths over 20 m. 

Researchers in Australia have uncovered a massive “detached” coral reef off the Queensland coast, the first of its kind to be discovered in more than 120 years. The discovery was made about 80 kilometres east of Cape Grenville, approximately 150 kilometres south of the tip of the Cape York Peninsula.

Healthy coral reefs provide food and a home to about 25% of all the world’s marine creatures, sustain an estimated 6 million fishermen, provide coastal protection by reducing the impact of waves and support local tourist economies. But corals worldwide are under threat. Mass bleaching is rapidly threatening the world’s coral reefs, with an estimated 50% already lost and 90% projected by mid-century.

Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) are bad news for coral reefs, so it is essential that they are detected and dealt with as soon as possible.

But detecting an outbreak in its early stages is not easy. What’s more, they sometimes hide under coral plates, while the younger ones can be as small as just a few millimetres.

To counter this, the researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) developed a new test to detect the presence of the starfish on coral reefs.

Typically, coral reef environments are low in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous compounds. However, such conditions are not set in stone as sometimes, passing ocean currents can bring in nutrients from elsewhere. In addition, man-made fertilisers and stormwater runoff from adjacent coastlines can also contribute to the nutrient levels.

And, high levels of nutrients are bad news for corals.

In recent decades, many coral reefs around the world have been suffering tremendous damages as a result of global climate change. However, in the northern Red Sea, the situation seems to be somewhat different: Research has shown that the coral reefs in both Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat and Gulf of Suez are unusually resilient to climatic changes. Corals in the northern Red Sea regularly experience 4.0˚C - 6.5˚C daily changes in seawater temperature and seasonal variations that exceed 29˚C.

Reef-building staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) was abundant and widespread throughout the Caribbean and Florida until the late 1970s.  The fast-growing coral formed dense thickets in forereef, backreef, and patch-reef environments to depths over 20 m. 

Corals are essential to the balance of the planet, but today they are threatened with extinction.  Thanks to restoration efforts as well as the construction of unique artificial reefs, dedicated to the rehabilitation of coral reefs in damaged areas, we make possible the return of lost biodiversity in this environment.

The corals were rescued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and NOAA Fisheries after an outbreak of Stony Coral Tissue Loss disease commenced 2014. Previously, little was known about ridged cactus coral reproduction, as no photos, videos, or published studies were ever done on the species' reproductive biology.