Corals beat the heat by being prepared | Essentials

Corals beat the heat by being prepared

NOAA Ocean Explorer: Lophelia II 2009: Deepwater Coral Expedition: Reefs, Rigs, and Wrecks Exploration by NOAA, Ocean Explorer
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Excerpt:

Some forms of Acropora hyacinthus coral preempt the effects of warming waters by turning on genes that help them resist heat and stress. Franco Banfi/Getty Images Corals that can survive in warming ocean water may be genetically primed to sweat it out. Studying reef-building Acropora hyacinthus corals from American Samoa’s Ofu Island, researchers from the Stanford University Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif. , found that the activity of hundreds of genes changed when both heat-sensitive and heat-tolerant corals were switched from 29. 2° Celsius water to 32. 9° C water. But even before getting into hot water, heat-tolerant corals had already turned on 60 genes designed to help combat heat and stress, the researchers report online January 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sensitive corals that bleach in the heat didn’t turn on those heat- and stress-beaters until after temperatures rose.

Concepts:

Turn Stanford University Ocean Water Calcium Coral Turn-On Temperature

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Corals

Overall Sentiment: 0.291052

Relevance: 0.854347

Additional Info:

GeographicFeature: warming ocean

Overall Sentiment: 0.464226

Relevance: 0.324167

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Source URL: sciencenews.org

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Once waters begin to warm, a study finds, it's too late to adapt

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Corals beat the heat by being prepared

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Full Content: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347412/title/Corals_beat_the_heat_by_being_prepared

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