Stephen Palumbi thinks that “Super Reefs” can help save dying coral

How coral reefs survived the rise in 2015-2016 climate: Enric Sala’s expedition to the island nation of Palau, Philippines, visited by a time machine

The goal is to use lessons from those reefs to protect and restore others that aren’t as lucky. Working mostly in the Pacific island nation of Palau, Palumbi and his collaborators have been studying unusually warm patches of ocean, trying to identify why some super coral ecosystems thrive. The secret can be found in their genes. The diversity of species and the genetic diversity of individuals on a reef are what makes it resistant, he says. Dozens of coral have a heat-resistant constitution, and that’s what his team has been able to identify so far.

The first is, thankfully, half of the corals had not died, as was previously thought. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce and replenish the reefs.

Half abillion people depend on the corals in the world to survive. With coral’s survival under threat from climate change, marine scientist Enric Sala might not have been able to achieve his goal.

Sala wanted to use a time machine to visit a coral reef that used to be everywhere but was polluted and killed by humans.

The goal was accomplished during an expedition that Sala led with the National Geographic Society. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, to see if the vibrant and virtually untouched reefs there held any clues to bringing damaged reefs in other parts of the ocean back to health.

Despite the reported conditions, the reef was filled with life and color once more. Sala and his team were very happy. This resurrection is something that Sala says can be traced to two key factors.

The team presented their findings to the officials. The Kiribati government took steps to protect the waters from fishing and other human activity, but between 2015 and 2016, record levels of ocean warming decimated half the coral reefs the team had been studying.

After hearing that the temperature was going to increase, they lost hope for the future of coral reefs. They went in for another dive last year after the study continued. Sala, dreading what he was about to find, jumped in with no gear.

“It has an abundance of fish that is off the charts. Sala said that eating all the algae that was smothering the dead coral skeletons made it impossible for the corals to come back.

Sala said that protecting the oceans allows them to become more resilient. In highly protected areas, the populations of fish grow so much that they spill over the boundaries of their areas and help replenish surrounding fishing grounds, in addition to allowing the ocean to capture and store more carbon to mitigate climate change.

More than 1,550 of some 17,903 marine plants and animals assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are at risk of extinction, according to the latest list which acts as a barometer of biodiversity and is published several times a year.

The report’s release coincides with a UN summit on nature in Montreal where UN Chief Antonio Guterres has urged countries to end an “orgy of destruction” and pass a deal to halt and reverse habitat loss.

“Underwater, you can’t really see what’s going on. Assessing the status of the species gives us a real indicator of what is really happening there, it isn’t good news.

Current data shows a portion of marine species as facing extinction, but those analyzed have tended to be widespread fish species.

The dugong population has fallen to less than 250 adults in east Africa and less than 900 in New Caledonia, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The main food source of them is seagrass, and it is lost due to oil and gas exploration and production in the area of Mozambique and pollution from nickel mining in the Pacific.

In South Africa, poaching has “devastated” certain abalone populations, while pollution from agricultural and industrial run-off have “eliminated” other abalone in part of the Arabian Peninsula,” according to the IUCN in a news release.

The chair of the International Union for the Protection of Nature’s Species Survival Commission said the awful status of these species should shock us and get us to act.

The world’s wildlife populations plummeted by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018, a dangerous decline resulting from climate change and other human activity, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned in a report in October.

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