Coral Reefs Might Be “Remembering” Heat Waves To Adapt to the Climate Crisis - NowThis
Coral Reefs Might Be “Remembering” Heat Waves To Adapt to the Climate Crisis - NowThis
Coral Reefs Might Be “Remembering” Heat Waves To Adapt to the Climate Crisis
A study found that a reef's microbiome is vital in generating the reef's 'ecological memory,' or its ability to adapt to climate change by remembering what happened in a previous heat wave.
A new study published in the January 2024 issue of the ecology journal Global Change Biology said coral reefs might be 'remembering' heat waves to adapt to our changing climate. The 28-month study was conducted on the forereef, the area of the reef farthest from the shore, of Mo'orea, French Polynesia, which in 2019 and 2020 experienced two of the most severe marine heatwaves on record in that location.
The study concluded that, first and foremost, reducing anthropogenic oceanic climate change remains a top priority for coral conservation efforts. It specifically mentioned that despite miraculous recoveries of what were thought to be dead reefs, there's no conservation as effective as reducing the climate crisis overall.
However, it also found that a reef's microbiome, or the community of microscopic organisms living on the reef, is vital in generating the reef's 'ecological memory,' or its ability to adapt to climate change by remembering what happened in a previous heat wave. Ultimately, the study reaffirmed what scientists already knew: the secret to a reef's ability to survive is the microscopic organisms it hosts. Understanding those organisms and protecting their ecosystems could be yet another way to save the reefs while the Earth works on mitigating the climate crisis.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.