Coral reefs that can survive in conditions of dramatic changes in temperature raise hopes that some corals may be able to adapt to higher ocean temperatures, but whether they can catch up with climate change remains uncertain.
This time, University of Western Australia researcher Valena Schupf and his colleagues conducted thermal experiments using coral populations from Kimberley, northwest Australia, that can withstand extreme temperature fluctuations. They transplanted corals into tanks with different temperatures: similar to the temperatures of natural habitats of corals, or 4 degrees below or 1 degree above a stable or fluctuating temperature. Corals are adapted to low temperatures (9 months) and high temperatures (6 months), but once the highest temperatures exceed the normal seasonal fluctuations, their health begins to decline. The team did a two-week thermal stress test on corals and found that they could not raise the threshold temperature for whitening.
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