Earth Observatory Home NASA Earth Observatory Home Data and Images Features News Reference Missions Experiments Search
NASA's Earth Observatory
 Earth Observatory Navigation Bar
Turn glossary mode on News

  Media Alerts Stories Archive

March 18, 2004

Isolated Coral Reefs are at Risk from Global Climate Change

For species such as corals the dispersal of their larvae and restocking of damaged reefs is critical to their ability to survive the changes produced by global warming.

In the latest issue of Ecology Letters, David Ayre and Terry Hughes from the Australia’s Wollongong and James Cook Universities have for the first time used genetic data to show that individual coral reefs within the world’s largest tropical reef system (the Great Barrier Reef) must be buffered against such change by strong larval connections. This may occur in a stepping stone fashion between adjacent reefs.

In contrast they found that at Lord Howe Island 700 km south and the southernmost Pacific Ocean Reef, corals have little of the genetic diversity needed to respond to change and appear to have no current connection to the Great Barrier Reef.

The virtual absence of long-distance distance dispersal of corals to geographically isolated reefs makes them extremely vulnerable to global warming.

###
Contact:

Kate Stinchcombe
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
kate.stinchcombe@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com

This text derived from http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/atmospheric.php

Recommend this Article to a Friend

Back to: News

   
Subscribe to the Earth Observatory
About the Earth Observatory
Contact Us
Privacy Policy and Important Notices
Responsible NASA Official: Lorraine A. Remer
Webmaster: Goran Halusa
We're a part of the Science Mission Directorate