Coral Reefs

In assessing one of the main reef builders in Hawai'i, Montipora capitata or rice coral, researchers found that the symbiont community in those corals varied significantly in different parts of Kaneoh

Under a worst-case scenario, half of the coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions by 2035, if climate change continues unabated, according to a new study

Scientists and students from the University of Miami dove into the dark waters a few miles off the shores of Miami this week as part of an effort to develop hybrid reefs. The team from the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science was on a mission to collect eggs and sperm from spawning staghorn coral, which they hope to use to fertilise other strains of staghorn corals in a lab. It's all part of a USD 7.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to help address security threats to the military and civilian infrastructure along vulnerable coastal regions in Florida and the Caribbean. The Miami-based project seeks to protect coastal bases from damaging hurricane storm surge using hybrid reefs. Our mission is to develop hybrid reefs that combine the wave-protection benefits of artificial structures with the ecological benefits of coral reefs, said Andrew Baker, a professor and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab at the Rosenst

Research shows marine heat waves are now about 20 times more likely than they were just four decades ago, and they tend to be hotter and last longer

The ECB is among central banks trying to prepare for what a report warns could be a "coming economic upheaval"

Corals in the Gulf experience high seasonal temperatures of up to 35°C without bleaching, having adapted to these conditions over evolutionary time

The team agrees that further research identifying how corals respond to climate change is critical