Coral reefs in the Red Sea are at risk of bleaching if the temperature drops – study

Coral living in the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba is at risk of bleaching when water temperatures drop, new research finds. Science in Eilat and published in the journal PeerJ tested coral at a lower temperature in controlled experiments to determine if they would be affected. Leaching is the process by which coral, one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, is affected by a change in temperature and expels the algae that live in their tissues, turning them white. team has shown that the coral reefs of the Israeli coasts show a high tolerance for a rise in seawater temperature compared to other reefs around the world, research that could have valuable implications with global warming and sea temperature rise. Sea Simulator System to expose coral to higher temperatures expected to occur with global warming. Fine and his team originally found that the coral got along well with the warmer water. However, with experts predicting the Red Sea will enter a cooler period, the results show how much just a small drop can do damage to a massive ecosystem.

“While we have repeatedly demonstrated the high temperature tolerance of coral on the shallow reefs in Eilat, we wanted to test the possibility that this exceptional heat tolerance is associated with the trade-off between cold sensitivity,” said Dr. Jessica Bellworthy, who conducted her PhD research in Fine’s department.

“Indeed, we found that exposure to cold water periods causes a physiological response similar to bleaching.” After a particularly cold winter in Israel, the team showed that even a 1 ° C drop in mean temperature can result in a physiological stress response similar to that seen in other coral under heat stress. This has shown how close the Red Sea’s corals live to their lower temperature threshold. The investigation showed that the damaged, cooler coral did not die and, in fact, reverted to their previous state. They were then retested at a higher temperature to see if the cold stress had had any effect. “It was an important discovery for us to understand that even those individuals suffering from the cold winter stress were still not bleaching at the high temperatures,” Bellworthy said. Scientists have estimated that between 70 and 90% of all coral reefs were century will disappear mainly due to climate change and pollution, so the unique properties of the coral of the Gulf of Aqaba could provide vital information for the conservation of other reefs around the world.