Saving corals requires cutting carbon emissions, study finds
Porites evermanni. (Photo credit: Keoki Stender)
The eight most common species of coral around the islands can adapt to ocean warming and acidification but only if efforts to cut carbon emissions are made, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB).
Throughout the Indo-Pacific, a region that comprises more than two-thirds of the coral reefs on Earth, corals were found to be capable of surviving a “low climate change scenario,” where laboratory conditions reflect a global reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Critically, none of the species in the study could withstand a scenario where carbon emissions were not reduced. The study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that curtailing carbon dioxide emissions is essential for the survival of coral reefs.
“This study shows that widespread and diverse coral species all exhibit the potential to adapt to the changing climate, but climate change mitigation is essential for them to have a chance at adaptation,” said Christopher Jury, who is an HIMB post-doctoral researcher and lead author of the study.
Read more about it in the UH News.