Coral resiliency offers encouraging signs despite warming oceans

Good News Notes:

Corals, forecast for doom in many future climate scenarios, could be more resilient to rising temperatures and ocean acidification than scientists once thought. 

New research, in which scientists spent 22 months studying several types of corals in Hawaii, suggests that several species, absent other stressors, could survive even if the world warms up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average. That temperature mark is the goal for limiting warming that was set by world leaders in the Paris Agreement.

“We’re finding a shred of hope there will be some survivors” if the world warms to Paris levels, said Rowan McLachlan, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University and study author.

The new study, which was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, is unprecedented for its length of observation and for providing an environment as realistic as possible for the corals to live, the authors said. …”

View the whole story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/coral-resiliency-offers-encouraging-signs-warming-oceans-rcna19502

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