“Coral Reefs and Climate Change: How Will They Survive?”
Increasing atmospheric CO2 is driving ocean warming and acidification – both of which are stressful to corals. The combined threat of ocean warming and acidification is predicted to devastate the majority of reefs by the end of this century. However, there are always some corals that survive or are more tolerant of these stress conditions. My research focuses on understanding the underlying traits that are associated with coral resilience. If these traits are universal predictors of resiliency in corals, our findings will shed light on what reefs of the future might look like and could be used to improve the accuracy of models that forecast the extent of future reefs, as well as guide reef management strategies towards corals more likely to persist.
Dr. Andréa Grottoli is a professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University.