“We don’t know if other coral reefs will be able to adapt to ocean acidification – the time scale might be too short.”
The scientists are careful to stress that their findings in Palau are different from every other low pH environment that has been studied. “When we discover a reef like Palau where the coral communities are thriving under low pH, that’s an exception,” said Cohen.
“It doesn’t mean that coral reefs around the globe are going to be fine under ocean acidification conditions. It does mean that there are some coral communities out there – and we’ve found one – that appear to have figured it out. But that doesn’t mean that all coral reef ecosystems are going to figure it out.”
This research was also funded by the WHOI Ocean Life Institute and The Nature Conservancy.
Check the following link to read/download the Full Study – “Diverse Coral Communities in Naturally Acidified Waters of a Western Pacific Reef”:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL058489/abstract
Source: NSF.
