Ocean warming, caused by man-made global warming, was supposed to lead to the destruction of the corals we were told again and again.
But now a new study published at the Marine Pollution Bulletin shows that corals are far more resilient than first thought. More bad news for the catastrophe-obsessed climate kooks.
The National Oceanography Centre here reports:
A number of coral species survive at seawater temperatures far higher than estimates for the tropics during the next century.
We associate coral reefs with tropical seas of around 28 degrees so in that mindset even slight warming can have devastating effects on corals. But in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, corals survive seawater temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius every summer, heat levels that would kill corals elsewhere. Corals have adapted.
Reefs are made up of many species of coral, each of which have a mutually beneficial, or “symbiotic”, relationship with algae living in their tissue. These algae supply vital nutrition to the host but are sensitive to environmental changes including increases in seawater temperature. […]
‘In Gulf corals, both the coral host and the associated algal partners need to withstand the high seawater temperatures,’ said Dr Wiedenmann who led the study.
But the scientists were surprised to discover that the algae in Gulf corals belong to a group not known for its thermal tolerance.
‘We see that the algae are indeed special but in a way that we did not expect,’ said Dr Wiedenmann. ‘The algae that we found in most of the corals in Abu Dhabi reefs were previously described as a ‘generalist strain’ that is usually not found in corals exposed to high levels of heat stress.’
‘The system seems to be more complex than it is commonly thought…’ “
Read more here.
How long have corals been around and what temperature extremes have they survived before? The results of the study are hardly a surprise.
When the coral-bleaching-through-global-warming stories first made the rounds I wondered the same thing. The Red Sea has corals flourishing at 28 C; the pretty warm mediterranian has some corals. So what’s the problem again. There are deep sea corals in the Atlantic as well, so cold doesn’t stop coral polyps from surviving either.
And BTW, vertical growth of some corals can reach 28 cm a year. That’s good news for coral atolls in the Pazific because it means they’ll survive sea level rise as long as sea level rise is slower than 28 cm a year. Which is highly likely, if I may borrow IPCC jargon.
[…] Corals Surviving Just Fine In Warm Waters – Another Predicted Catastrophe Gets Cancelled […]
DirkH already said most of it. If I can add that sea levels change by over 300 metres during ice ages and there is no shortage of corals around the world.
300 meters? That figure sounds a bit high.
More like 120 meters. But during “snowball earth” periods 300-400 million years ago it might have been 300 meters lower, but that was mostly due to plate tectonics. But the fact remains, at the ends of ice ages, sea level rises meters per century and corals have survived that multiple times.
Quite right. I recently read 300 feet change and the figure stuck. That is 91 metres. Ed covered it nicely thanks.
http://globalwarmingskeptics.info/thread-1103-post-12119.html#pid12119
A nice image to see.