Study shows cleaner water mitigates climate change effects on Florida Keys coral reefs
Improving the quality of local water increases the resistance of coral reefs to global climate change, according to a study published in June in Marine Ecology Progress Series. Florida Institute of Technology coral reef ecologist Robert van Woesik and his student Dan Wagner led the study, which provides concrete evidence for a link between environmental health and the prospects for reefs in a rapidly changing world.
Van Woesik and his team showed that when waters in the Florida Keys warmed over the last few summers, corals living in cleaner water with fewer nutrients did well. On the other hand, corals in dirtier water became sick and bleached.
“Regulating wastewater discharge from the land will help coral reefs resist climate change,” said van Woesik. “In the face of climate change and ocean warming, this study gives managers hope that maintaining high water quality can spare corals.”
The link to the published paper is at http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v408/p65-78. For more information, contact van Woesik at rvw@fit.edu
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.fit.eduAll latest news from the category: Ecology, The Environment and Conservation
This complex theme deals primarily with interactions between organisms and the environmental factors that impact them, but to a greater extent between individual inanimate environmental factors.
innovations-report offers informative reports and articles on topics such as climate protection, landscape conservation, ecological systems, wildlife and nature parks and ecosystem efficiency and balance.
Newest articles
Economies take off with new airports
A global study by an SUTD researcher in collaboration with scientists from Japan explores the economic benefits of airport investment in emerging economies using nighttime satellite imagery. Be it for…
CAR T–cell immunotherapy targets
Pan-cancer analysis uncovers a new class of promising CAR T–cell immunotherapy targets. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found 156 potential CAR targets across the brain and solid tumors,…
Stony coral tissue loss disease
… is shifting the ecological balance of Caribbean reefs. The outbreak of a deadly disease called stony coral tissue loss disease is destroying susceptible species of coral in the Caribbean…
