Scientists Say Coral Reefs Need Time They No Longer Have as Bleaching Accelerates

Scientists say coral reefs need time they no longer have as bleaching accelerates

Coral reefs around the world are facing a growing challenge that scientists say is no longer defined by a single bleaching event, but by the shrinking amount of time reefs have to recover before the next wave of marine heat arrives, according to marine ecologists. The post Scientists say coral reefs need time they no longer have as bleaching accelerates appeared first on Post Courier.

Scientists tracked coral on Japanese breakwaters for twenty nine years, and after a major bleaching event the artificial structures recovered within six years while the natural reef beside them barely recovered at all

For nearly three decades, researchers monitored coral growing on concrete breakwaters at Naha Port in Okinawa, Japan, alongside the natural reef sitting a short distance away. The two habitats started out looking very different from each other and, after a severe bleaching event in 1998, they diverged again in a way that surprised the team doing the counting: the artificial structures recovered in about six years, while the adjacent natural reef…