News about corals: events, facts and developments on tafs uz.
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A new study published in the journal Nature has found that about 44% of reef-building coral species are at elevated risk of extinction. The main cause cited is climate-related thermal stress. Scientists warned that the assessment does not take into account the record ocean warming of 2023–2025, so the share of endangered species may be even higher.
Madina UsmonovaResidents of the Fijian village of Naidiri have been restoring fish stocks since 2009: they created a protected zone on the Coral Coast, and since 2011 young people have been planting corals and mangroves — in 2023 alone, 18,000 corals and 10,000 mangroves. After a heat wave with water temperatures up to 39°C, about 20% of the corals survived — 'super-corals' resistant to warming, which are now being transplanted into deeper waters near Suva. Sharks have returned to the reef.
Madina UsmonovaA study published in Science Advances showed that if a bleached coral is kept in contact for several days with a healthy, genetically identical fragment of the same colony, beneficial algae transfer to it through fused tissues, and it recovers in less than two months. The method is not yet applicable in the ocean because it requires 'twins,' but scientists are looking for a way to deliver the algae differently.
Madina Usmonova
