A team of scientists from James Cook University (JCU) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have found that some coral species can adapt to increasing temperatures that cause bleaching, but only when marine heat wave events remain mild.
A team of scientists from James Cook University (JCU) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have found that some coral species can adapt to increasing temperatures that cause bleaching, but only when marine heat wave events remain mild.
Magena Marzonie, an AIMS@JCU Ph.D. candidate, is the lead author of a new paper examining how corals react to temperature extremes in isolated reefs of the Coral Sea Marine Park. She found that corals from different reefs showed considerable variation in their bleaching level in response to high water temperatures.
« Our experiments show that tolerance to heat stress differs between species of corals and between reefs, » she said. « These differences suggest corals may be adapted to their local environmental regimes and are responding to changes in temperatures that have occurred due to climate warming over the past 35 years. »
The team of scientists collected specimens of three coral species at nine reefs in the Coral Sea Marine Park during a 30-day voyage in 2020.
