As spiking ocean temperatures are devastating reefs around the world, a handful of scientists have found a reason for cautious optimism.
They’ve used artificial intelligence to detect sheltered pockets where cool currents, reduced exposure to sunlight and locations outside cyclone paths mean corals are more likely to survive.
The study, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and presented on Tuesday at the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, is currently undergoing peer review for publication in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Five scientists identified 42 factors that create the conditions for the coral havens, called refugia, and then ran those through a program with nearly 38,000 human observations of coral cover and composition gathered over 65 years.
The program identified more than 5,800 square miles of climate-resilient ocean in 72 countries. The work found three times as many refugia as a landmark 2018 assessment known as the 50 Reefs Study, the first paper to systematically identify areas around the globe where coral might still be saved.
Scientists and environmentalists said the new assessment offered a more nuanced picture of the state of the world’s reefs and could help fine tune conservation priorities.
“This study sharpens decades of work on reef resilience to climate change,” said David Obura, the chair of IPBES, the global intergovernmental scientific panel on biodiversity, who was not involved in the new research.
“It focuses attention on the critical question: Will climate refuges comprise 10 percent, 1 percent, or even less of the former extent of coral reefs. ” Coral reefs are crucial ecosystems.
They nurture an estimated quarter of ocean species at some point during their life cycles, supporting fish that provide protein for millions of people and protecting coastlines from storms. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
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