Coral growth in Western Australia found to be thriving in warmer water
(PhysOrg.com) -- As most people are well aware, global warming isn’t just about the atmosphere, it’s about rising ocean temperatures as well. And like increases in the atmosphere, scientists aren’t really clear on what impact such temperature increases will have on the oceans. One such impact most researchers thought was well understood was the bleaching of coral reefs. As ocean temperatures rise and become more acidic, coral reefs tend to slough off the algae that grows on them, causing them to slowly die. Now however, new research by a team from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, has found that coral reefs off the western shores of the Australian continent are not only not suffering from the increased temperature, but are apparently thriving, as the study they’ve published in Science describes, they have actually been growing faster in the past hundred years than prior to that time.