Climate change is decimating coral reefs. As humans put greenhouse gasses into Earth's atmosphere, they warm the planet before settling back down into the oceans and making the water more acidic. These combined factors have caused coral die-offs around the world. But now researchers have found a set of corals in Hawaii’s Kāne’ohe Bay that can already tolerate warmer temperatures and more acidic waters. Scientists are calling them "supercorals."
These corals even bounced back after sewage decimated the bay less than 30 years ago. Scientists say the discovery offers hope for reef resilience. “We won’t save every coral or every reef — many are already gone — but neither is it inevitable that we are going to lose all of them,” said Christopher Jury, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii, who led the new research. “If we seriously reduce the rate of climate change and the intensity of ...
