Rising ocean temperatures endangering corals health

Researchers have conclusively linked rise in ocean temperature to the outbreak of disease among some of the healthiest sections of Australias Great Barrier Reef.

Washington, May 8 : Researchers have conclusively linked rise in ocean temperature to the outbreak of disease among some of the healthiest sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Close living quarters among coral make it easy for infection to spread, researchers found in their study.

"With this study, speculation about the impacts of global warming on the spread of infectious diseases among susceptible marine species has been brought to an end," said Don Rice, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research through the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Diseases Program.

For six years, the international research team, led by University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, tracked an infection called white syndrome in 48 reefs along more than 900 miles of Australia's coastline.

The colourful coral colonies live atop a limestone scaffolding built from the calcium carbonate secretions of each tiny coral, or polyp. While polyps provide the framework, coral's vivid hues come from symbiotic single-celled algae that live in the polyps. The algae supply much of the food coral need to survive.

However, when disease or stressful environmental conditions strike a coral colony, the polyps expel their algae, which make the corals appear pale.

As such, understanding the causes of disease outbreaks will help ecologists protect reef-building corals, which support commercial marine species and buffer low-lying coastal areas, Rice said.

"We're left with a big question. Can corals and other marine species successfully adapt or evolve, when faced with such change?" Rice said.

"More diseases are infecting more coral species every year, leading to the global loss of reef-building corals and the decline of other important species dependent on reefs. We've long suspected climate change is driving disease outbreaks. Our results suggest that warmer temperatures are increasing the severity of disease in the ocean," said UNC researcher and lead author of the study, John Bruno.

ANI