Protect coral reefs more effectively from the effects of climate change

Global warming causes coral deaths

Due to climate change, corals around the world are currently dying
.
In just a few decades, the number of corals in the world has been reduced by half, and because they have adapted to local thermal tolerance, many corals are ill-prepared to respond to further increases in ocean temperatures

In order to clarify the factors that contribute to the higher heat resistance of corals, Voolstra and his colleagues introduced a new mobile test system last year, the Coral Whitening Automated Pressure System (CBASS)
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This system makes it possible to quickly identify corals that are particularly adaptable

Different heat capacity mechanisms

In the current study, the research team used a test system to evaluate the heat tolerance of smooth cauliflower corals in different regions of the Red Sea
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The results showed that corals from Aqaba Bay, the most northeast of the Red Sea, exhibited an extraordinary thermal tolerance, about 7°C above their respective highest months and average hottest summer months-just like their counterparts from the core of the Red Sea

To investigate this possibility, the research team conducted molecular analysis to clarify the heat-resistant mechanism of corals from different locations
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Genetic testing has shown that the smooth cauliflower coral in the Gulf of Aqaba responds to heat stress by strong changes in gene expression, such as increased production of certain proteins

These molecular results support the idea that smooth cauliflower corals have different heat-resistant mechanisms
.
"We interpret the response of the corals in the Gulf of Aqaba as a kind of "resilient" population that responds directly and proportionally to the rise in temperature

Global Coral Reef Protection Toolbox

At present, it is not clear which tolerance mechanism can better protect corals from the effects of rising global ocean temperatures caused by climate change
.
The use of molecular methods to distinguish between the tolerance mechanisms of "elasticity" and "resistance" is of great significance for the priority protection of existing coral reefs or the recovery method of using heat-resistant corals for sexual reproduction

Therefore, the research team is making plans to adopt the methods successfully used in the Red Sea study worldwide
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Voolstra concluded: "Our research shows the great value of a comprehensive and combined approach: the use of the CBASS system to standardize the thermal and weather resistance of corals, and subsequent molecular analysis to determine potential tolerance mechanisms and markers.

According to a report from the University of Konstanz in July, the financial support for the project was provided by the Paul G.

Journal Reference :

1. Christian R.
   Voolstra, Jacob J.
   Valenzuela, Serdar Turkarslan, Anny Cárdenas, Benjamin CC Hume, Gabriela Perna, Carol Buitrago-López, Katherine Rowe, Monica V.
   Orellana, Nitin S.
   Baliga, Suman Paranjape, Guilhem Banc ‐Prandi, Jessica Bellworthy, Maoz Fine, Sarah Frias‐Torres, Daniel J.
   Barshis.
   Contrasting heat stress response patterns of coral holobionts across the Red Sea suggest distinct mechanisms of thermal tolerance .
   Molecular Ecology , 2021; DOI: 10.
   1111/mec.
   16064