Enric Sala and the coral reefs of Palau, a coastal island nation, discovered that corals survive heat and are able to reproduce

The goal is to use lessons from those reefs to protect and restore others that aren’t as lucky. Working mostly in the Pacific island nation of Palau, Palumbi and his collaborators have been studying unusually warm patches of ocean, trying to identify why some super coral ecosystems thrive. The secret is in their genes. The diversity of species and the genetics of people are what gives the reef’s resilience. 40 reefs have been examined and his team has found dozens of coral that is resistant to heat.

The first is, thankfully, half of the corals had not died, as was previously thought. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce and replenish the reefs.

Though they may not know it, about half a billion people worldwide depend on the ecosystems created and sustained by corals. With coral’s survival threatened by a changing climate, Enric Sala had a goal that might not have been feasible.

“We wanted to get into a time machine, go back hundreds of years and actually see a coral reef like they used to be everywhere, before we started exploiting them and polluting them and killing them all over the world,” Sala said.

The goal was made possible during an expedition led by Sala with the National Geographic Society. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, to see if there was anything they could tell us about the health of the other parts of the ocean.

Despite the reported conditions, the reef had somehow restored itself, filled with life and color once more. Sala and his team were very happy. This resurrection is something that Sala says can be traced to two key factors.

His team presented their findings to officials in the island country of Kiribati. The team studying the coral reefs of Kiribati had 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884

After hearing that the temperature was going to go up, they lost hope for the health of the coral reefs. But, the study continued, and last year, they went in for another dive. Sala jumped in without any gear, because he was about to find something.

There is an abundance of fish that is off the charts. So they were eating all the algae that would smother the dead coral skeletons, and make it impossible for the corals to come back, which is what happens in other places like the Caribbean,” Sala explained.

Sala said that protecting the oceans from being overfished will allow the system to be more resilient. In highly protected areas, the populations of fish grow so much that they spill over the boundaries of their areas and help replenish surrounding fishing grounds, in addition to allowing the ocean to capture and store more carbon to mitigate climate change.