Ecology
A team of researchers from the School of Biological Sciences and the Institute for Global Climate Change at the University of Queensland investigated how seawater acidification affects the colonization of young people coral polyps on the reef.
Research has shown that ocean acidification has a detrimental effect on the ability of young polyps to sense the environment. Oxidation causes coral polyps to settle in inappropriate places, making it difficult for them to survive, according to research leader Christopher Doropoulos.
“Young coral polyps are swimming larvae that choose a place to attach themselves to the reef and live there for the rest of their lives. This is a very important stage for the survival of individual polyps and the health of the entire reef,” he said.
Coral larvae have an amazing ability to anchor themselves in a specific location on an algae called Titanoderma. These rocky algae are ideal for young coral polyps, but as the ocean becomes more acidic, they begin to avoid these algae and stick to completely different places.
Working on a remote island in the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have found that this ancient symbiotic relationship between coral larvae and the algae that ingest them is broken.
Doropoulos said that as a result of the disruption of these relationships, polyps are in serious danger, and they are losing their ability to grow beautiful corals that support reefs around the world.
Ocean acidification is also changing the types of algae that are available to coral polyps, as well as harming their favorite species Titanoderma, scientists said. The main cause of ocean acidification is human activity, which releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and dissolves in seawater.
This study is another work that shows the negative impact of climate change on the natural processes that support coral reefs, and also underlines the negative impact of climate change the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Scientists have identified 3 main negative effects of oxidation that harm the health of coral polyps: firstly, it reduces the number of successfully settled larvae, and secondly, it disrupts their behavior, therefore polyps make the wrong decision when settling, and thirdly, they worsen the most favorable habitat for them. This has an adverse effect on the function of coral reefs and their ability to survive in difficult conditions.