What will happen to coral reefs

Corals under stress are likely to stop sexual reproduction, which puts their survival at risk. Apart from urgent action to mitigate climate change on a global scale, it is increasingly evident that traditional conservation measures are inadequate to ensure the survival of this essential ecosystem. If we want to give coral reefs a fighting chance to survive and thrive for generations to come, we need active restoration measures to complement coral reef conservation. Together with our lead partners, we initiated the Global Coral Restoration effort in to accelerate the development of new tools, methods and strategies to make coral restoration viable on larger thus meaningful scales.

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Just as diversification builds resilience for livelihoods, so it is essential for reef ecosystems, and reef networks connected by ocean currents, to allow migrating larvae move and adapt. We need to conserve hot sites, which are important sources of heat-tolerant corals, as well as colder sites that can become important future habitats. Others want to intervene further by selectively implanting heat-tolerant varieties, including lab-grown polyps, or even using Crispr, a rapid gene-editing technology, to produce genetically engineered versions.

In , researchers described 23 different ways to improve the resilience and persistence of coral reefs. Those experiments showed that heat-adapted corals can thrive in new environments and could be an important source of reef regeneration. One place to look would be the Gulf of Aqaba in the northern Red Sea. Due to a quirk of geology, the corals there have evolved adapted to harsh hot conditions, with the result that they are not simply heat-tolerant, they thrive better as the water heats, growing faster.

She believes these corals represent a precious and unique population — they could be the last coral reefs standing at the end of the century. And yet they are currently poorly protected , threatened by pollution and rampant coastal development, which compromises their resilience. Indeed, one study showed that coral that survived bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in had twice the average heat tolerance the following year.

Separate lab research reveals that corals can pass on their adaptive strategies to their offspring. Timing is everything, though. When coral dies or is destroyed, the reef shrinks,a problem exacerbated by current sea level rise, making it harder for new corals to grow because their habitat is depth-specific.

And when you lose a coral reef, you are losing the entire ecosystem, not simply a few species of coral. It means we need to ask hard questions about what we value in our reefs and what we are trying to protect in terms of functionality. Implanting thermal extremophiles, such as corals from Aqaba, could speed up the evolutionary process of heat adaptation, but means dramatically changing the ecosystem — the opposite of traditional conservation — and comes with risks.

Artificial — even 3D printed — reefs can provide structure and researchers are even experimenting with artificial reef noise. Using underwater loudspeakers to play the sounds of a healthy reef in degraded areas has been shown to attract fish populations back to the area , helping to kickstart recovery of the ecosystem. In other words, it will depend on good reef management and whether humanity can get a handle on climate change.

Coral reefs are facing an unprecedented threat from global carbon dioxide emissions, chiefly because of hotter oceans and acidification as the atmospheric gas dissolves into seawater. These tourists spend billions of dollars diving into the underwater landscapes. These reefs also provide protection to the tourist-reliant coastlines.

But today humans are putting these all at risk. Rising ocean temps and pollution stress the coral, which can kill entire coral ecosystems within just a few months. Half of the US Caribbean coral died in one massive bleaching event back in World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.

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