Scientists Seek To Help Coral Reefs Adapt to Warmer Waters
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For decades, rising sea surface temperatures have been driving out and killing the algae, called zooxanthellae, that give coral reefs their often-spectacular color. That has left behind the lifeless, bleached skeletons built by clustered colonies of thousands of corals. Meanwhile, the oceans’ growing acidity, caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the water, impedes the biological processes that allow corals to create their limestone structures.
However, scientists have learned that some corals seem to resist warming temperatures better than others. A University of Miami marine biologist, Andrew Baker, is about to embark on an experiment aimed at learning whether scientists can help corals adapt by providing them with symbiotic partners better prepared to cope with waters that are growing warmer largely because of the buildup of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
“It’s controversial; it’s high risk,” Mr. Baker said last week. “But we’re trying to do everything we can, literally, to make sure there are as many corals as possible left to save.”
Researchers used to believe there was just one species of zooxanthellae in corals. But since the start of the decade, they have begun to discover that there are more than a dozen, and some have an easier time adapting to rising temperatures than others.
Two weeks ago the Pew Institute for Ocean Science awarded Mr. Baker a three-year, $150,000 grant to help identify the specific genetic and physiological factors that allow some corals to cope with warming better than others. Mr. Baker and his team will do their work in the lab, artificially bleaching corals and then adding cultured algae to the water to see if other zooxanthellae varieties can help the corals adapt to the temperature shift. In another set of experiments, the scientists plan to inject thermally resistant algae into the polyps that allow corals to reproduce. If these two trials succeed, they will try injecting these zooxanthellae into the oldest and largest coral colonies that produce the most larvae.
