Om koraller ur Executive Summary NIPCC 2009 och 2011:
• The persistence of coral reefs through geologic
time—when temperatures were as much as 10°-
15°C warmer than at present, and atmospheric
CO2 concentrations were two to seven times
higher than they are currently—provides
substantive evidence that these marine entities
can successfully adapt to a dramatically changing
global environment.
• The 18- to 59-cm warming-induced sea-level rise
that is predicted for the coming century by the
IPCC falls well within the range (2 to 6 mm per
year) of typical coral vertical extension rates,
which exhibited a modal value of 7 to 8 mm per
year during the Holocene and can be more than
double that value in certain branching corals.
Rising sea levels should therefore present no
difficulties for coral reefs.
While some corals exhibit a propensity to bleach and die when sea temperatures rise, others exhibit a positive relationship between calcification, or growth, and temperature. ―Such variable bleaching susceptibility implies that there is a considerable variation in the extent to which coral species are adapted to local environmental conditions‖ (Maynard et al., 2008).
The latest research suggests corals have effective adaptive responses to climate change, such as symbiont shuffling, that allow reefs in some areas to flourish despite or even because of rising temperatures. Coral reefs have been able to recover quickly from bleaching events as well as damage from cyclones.
Bleaching and other signs of coral distress attributed to global warming are often due to other things, including rising levels of nutrients and toxins in coastal waters caused by runoff from agricultural activities on land and associated increases in sediment delivery.
NIPCC-rapporterna finns att hämta här:
http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/reports.html