{"id":429010,"date":"2026-05-06T23:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/429010\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T23:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:03:18","slug":"heat-resistant-corals-could-help-reefs-adapt-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/429010\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat-resistant corals could help reefs adapt to climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin Bowden-Kerby<\/a>, a pioneer in coral reef conservation, spends many of his days gardening corals for reefs around Fiji and the Pacific. He grows corals in ocean nurseries. Once they\u2019re healthy enough, he moves them to outer ocean areas with the hope they will replicate and grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at what Mother Nature would do on her own if she had 1,000 years to adapt,\u201d said Bowden-Kerby, who founded the UNESCO-endorsed Reefs of Hope strategy<\/a>. \u201cWe would have these kinds of things happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowden-Kerby is one of several scientists trying to conserve, replicate and reproduce heat-resistant corals before climate change wipes them out.<\/p>\n

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> has said the world is experiencing a fourth global coral bleaching event. They\u2019ve found that bleaching-level heat stress affected almost 85 per cent of the world\u2019s coral reef area between 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n

Bleaching causes corals to lose their food source and, with it, their colour. Most corals survive in temperatures between 20 and 29 C<\/a>. But as ocean temperatures rise, it\u2019s difficult for many to thrive.<\/p>\n

But naturally occurring, heat-resistant corals can survive in waters up to 36 C<\/a> and potentially higher<\/a>. They are usually found in warmer waters, like parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Persian Gulf. These corals are increasingly important as sea temperatures rise. So scientists are turning to them to help save declining reefs.<\/p>\n

Heat-resistant corals<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A coral reef in the Red Sea. Healthy corals nurture fish that feed communities and protect shores from floods and storms.
\n (Unsplash\/Francesco Ungaro)<\/p>\n

Corals reefs are extremely diverse places, with around 6,000 coral species worldwide<\/a>. Reefs are home to more than 4,000 species and 25 per cent of global marine life<\/a>. When healthy, corals nurture fish that feed communities, protect shores from floods and storms
\nand boost economies through tourism.<\/p>\n

However, heatwaves have led to widespread coral bleaching and loss<\/a>. When waters become too warm, corals expel the algae in their tissues that give them their colour. That causes corals to turn completely white.<\/p>\n

Coral reefs and their ecosystems are also threatened by pollution, ocean acidification, coastal development and overfishing.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Will 2026 be the year when coral reefs pass their tipping point?<\/a><\/p>\n

Christopher Cornwall, a lecturer in marine biology at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, co-authored a recent review<\/a> that found some reefs can survive if corals become more heat-tolerant.<\/p>\n

He told me there are multiple things to consider when conserving and replicating corals: restoring heat-resistant corals where it\u2019s feasible, doing so at a large enough scale and maintaining coral diversity. Restored corals also must be able to survive, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t just do coral restoration without thermally tolerant corals, because they\u2019re just going to die the next time it gets too hot,\u201d Cornwall said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

An infographic explaining how heat and pollution affect the algae in coral, causing bleaching.
\n (NOAA)<\/a><\/p>\n

Assisted evolution<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the research now is about, can you scale up restoration and how do you do it more effectively?\u201d said Peter Mumby, a professor of coral reef ecology at the University of Queensland in Australia. \u201cOne of the key concerns is to make sure those corals are as tolerant of high temperature as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breeding heat-tolerant corals is a form of assisted evolution. Humans intervene to speed up natural processes to help corals more quickly respond to and recover from their stressors, like heatwaves from climate change.<\/p>\n

One recent study<\/a> examining the possible success of assisted evolution interventions like breeding and selecting traits found these interventions can help corals become more tolerant to heatwaves, but they need \u201cextremely strong selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liam Lachs co-authored that study. Lachs is a former postdoctoral research associate in the CORALASSIST lab, a team of scientists led by James Guest at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Lachs specializes in coral reef ecosystems and researches coral in Palau, a Pacific island country where corals are surviving in warmer waters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He told me variability within and among reefs and coral species must be considered when creating more heat-resistant coral, which makes replication complex. \u201cEven within a single reef, there\u2019s a range of tolerance levels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n How accelerating evolution could help corals survive future heatwaves \u2013 new study<\/a><\/p>\n

Algae and bacteria<\/p>\n

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have found that some algae<\/a> (Durusdinium), which symbiotically live in corals and provide them with food in exchange for housing and protection, can boost corals\u2019 heat tolerance.<\/p>\n

Madeleine van Oppen is a senior principal research scientist at AIMS. She co-authored a recent review<\/a> about potentially introducing beneficial bacteria into corals to improve their heat tolerance.<\/p>\n

Scientists are also exploring<\/a> whether heat-tolerant corals should be planted across oceans \u2014 from the Indo-Pacific region to the Caribbean \u2014 and not just in nearby waters.<\/p>\n

Van Oppen said new ventures ultimately need more research, and the real test of success is if something done in a lab works in the wild. \u201cField testing, I\u2019d say, is the next big thing,\u201d she said. \u201cFinding out whether these interventions can enhance tolerance at ecologically relevant scales. Is it stable over time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a><\/p>\n

Bleached coral at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023.
\n (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n

AIMS researchers also found<\/a> that heat tolerance could be passed down by interbreeding wild colonies of the same coral species. Heat-resistant coral species include some pocillopora<\/a> and acropora<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If left unchecked, the sustained global temperature is on target to rise more than 1.5 C<\/a>. Some evidence has shown that 70 to 90 per cent of tropical coral reefs could go extinct<\/a> even if global warming is limited to 1.5 C.<\/p>\n

Prior to the fourth event, the Earth already experienced three mass coral bleaching events over the last few decades. An El Ni\u00f1o is expected this year<\/a>, bringing with it hotter sea surface temperatures<\/a>, much like in 2024.<\/p>\n

For all the efforts by scientists to save coral reefs and ensure heat resilience, nothing will keep corals healthy more than lowering the global temperature. \u201cThe lower we can get our greenhouse gas emissions, the more chance there will be that reefs will exist in the future,\u201d said Cornwall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Bowden-Kerby, a pioneer in coral reef conservation, spends many of his days gardening corals for reefs around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-429010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}