by Staff Writers Southampton UK (SPX) Feb 06, 2013 Coral reefs
are predicted to decline under the pressure of global warming.
However, a number of coral species can survive at seawater
temperatures even higher than predicted for the tropics during
the next century. How they survive, while most species cannot,
is being investigated by researchers at the National
Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) and New York University
Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). We tend to associate coral reefs with
tropical seas of around 28 degrees, where even slight warming
can have devastating effects on corals. But in the
Arabian/Persian Gulf, corals survive seawater temperatures of up
to 36 degrees Celsius every summer, heat levels that would kill
corals elsewhere. In their study, the NOCS team worked closely
with NYUAD researchers to select and characterise model corals
from the Arabian/Persian Gulf, which will facilitate future
molecular-scale investigations into why they can tolerate heat
stress. "We have established successful laborato