Some coral species can be resilient to marine heat waves by “remembering” how they lived through previous ones, research by Oregon State University scientists suggests.
Some coral species can be resilient to marine heat waves by “remembering” how they lived through previous ones, research by Oregon State University scientists suggests.
The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, also contains evidence that the ecological memory response is likely linked to the microbial communities that dwell among the corals.
The findings, published today in Global Change Biology, are important because coral reefs, crucial to the functioning of planet Earth, are in decline from a range of human pressures including climate change, said the study’s lead author, Alex Vompe.
“It is vital to understand how quickly reefs can adapt to ever more frequent, repeated disturbances such as marine heat waves,” said Vompe, a doctoral student who works in the lab of microbiology professor Rebecca Vega Thurber. “The microbiomes living within their coral hosts might be a key component of rapid adaptation.”
Read more at: Oregon State University
OSU coral researcher Alex Vompe off the north shore of Mo'orea (Photo Credit: Mackenzie Kawahara)
