A long-term study has revealed that fire corals are thriving in Caribbean reefs even as other corals disappear, thanks to its unusual ability to grow in two forms.
Fire corals can be the bane of a scuba diver’s existence. An accidental brush against one can cause agonizing pain. But they also may help save Caribbean reefs, which have been plagued by hurricanes, global warming, disease, and an overabundance of algae. A long-term study has revealed that fire corals are thriving there even as other corals disappear and could help preserve some of the 3D environment that helps make reefs such great homes to fish and other organisms.
By analyzing the abundance of each organism in these “photoquadrats,” Edmunds has traced how algae and various corals have fared through hurricanes, warming sea temperatures, and other environmental stresses. “What he’s done is really remarkable,” says Caroline Dubé, a marine biologist at Laval University who studies plasticity in Pacific fire coral. “There are so many disturbances occurring in coral reefs that this is something that needs to be done more.
Periodically, unusually warm water causes the corals to lose their green algal partners and die, opening the way for macroalgae to move in again. Hurricanes also blow off the tree form’s branches. But the fire coral quickly comes back in one form or another, Edmunds found. Thus, this coral has been able to hold steady and even increase a little in abundance.
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