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coral reefs

Corals: the rainforest of the sea

Corals: the rainforest of the sea

Coral reefs protect coastlines, providing self-repairing breakwaters. Healthy coral reefs can dramatically reduce incoming wave energy. Problems here have major implications. Even a one meter loss of coral reef height can double the damage done to the shoreline and triple the costs from an extreme weather event. Without reefs, the cost of damages done by 100-year storm events could almost double.

Reefs may help us in other ways, and not just through their touristic appeal. They can for example provide medicinal compounds with potential uses in treatments for cancers, Alzheimer’s and numerous other diseases like arthritis and bacterial infections.

August 25, 2023
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Coral reefs host millions of bacteria, revealing Earth’s hidden biodiversity

Coral reefs host millions of bacteria, revealing Earth’s hidden biodiversity

Fish and corals in reefs across the Pacific Ocean may harbor nearly 3 million varieties of bacteria, researchers report June 1 in Nature Communications.

That means scientists are vastly underestimating Earth’s microbiome, microbiologist Pierre Galand of Sorbonne University in Paris said at a May 31 news conference. The new count of bacteria living in the Pacific Ocean’s coral reefs alone falls within current estimates for the total microbial diversity of Earth, suggesting that there exponentially more bacteria living on the planet than previously thought.

August 04, 2023
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Surviving Coral Alone Cannot Keep Reefs Alive, CSUN Prof’s Research Shows

Surviving Coral Alone Cannot Keep Reefs Alive, CSUN Prof’s Research Shows

CSUN marine biologist Peter Edmunds said three decades research chronicling the life history of the coral reefs off the Caribbean island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands indicates surviving coral alone cannot keep reefs alive, which has implications for coral reefs around the world. Photo courtesy of Peter Edmunds.

Edmunds, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Science and Mathematics, said the data he has collected over the past three decades off St. John provide information about what is happening in the marine communities supported by coral reefs — not just off St. John, but around the world — as well as an indication of how well those communities will survive the continuing impact of climate change.

July 14, 2023
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East Timor's coral reefs are the most biodiverse in the world. Why are they surviving climate change?

East Timor's coral reefs are the most biodiverse in the world. Why are they surviving climate change?

'Everyone talks about climate change' Luis Melky Here-Huno — or Melky as he is known around here —  is East Timor's first qualified diving instructor.   The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is one of the world's youngest nations, gaining its independence and officially changing its name in 2002, after a brutal war with Indonesia. From its inception, the tiny nation has sought to project itself as an eco-tourism alternative to Indonesia's island of Bali, 2,000 kilometres west. But as Timor-Leste reopens to the world post-COVID a key challenge remains: how can its pristine natural environment be maintained while building sustainable livelihoods for...

June 16, 2023
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Desert dusts convert coral reefs into carbon storage

Desert dusts convert coral reefs into carbon storage

An international study comparing data from Heron Reef and the Middle East's Gulf of Aqaba has disproved the long-held theory that coral reefs only have the capacity to emit CO2.

The first-of-its-kind discovery is the result of an international study led by The University of Queensland which found that dust blown in from nearby deserts can convert  into CO2 sinks.

June 09, 2023
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