红海中的珊瑚无法承受高温: 红海表面温度的不断上升正在威胁居住在珊瑚礁内并制造珊瑚礁的珊瑚虫。研究人员说，如果目前的暖化趋势继续下去的话，那么，到2070年的时候，红海中所有珊瑚的生长都会停止。 Neal Cantin及其同知道，自1970年代中期开始，热带海水温度已经上升了0.4至1.0摄氏度。 因此，研究人员应用3D影像技术来监控红海中的珊瑚（Diploastrea heliopora）的生长。他们发现，自1998年以来，那些表观健康的珊瑚群落的骨架延伸或增长已经衰减了30%。
他们还观察到，自那时起，这些珊瑚礁的钙化率也已经下降了约18%。 Cantin及其同僚将他们的数据与来自Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change的气候模拟进行结合后意识到，红海中的珊瑚生长有可能在本世纪末的时候最终走向停止。 不过，他们还注意到，这种珊瑚同样能够从1940年代初的某一短暂的温暖事件中快速地恢复，从而提示，如果该地区的气温暖化能够放缓的话，人们仍然有希望可以挽救这些红海的珊瑚礁。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1190182
Ocean Warming Slows Coral Growth in the Central Red Sea
Neal E. Cantin,* Anne L. Cohen,* Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Ann M. Tarrant, Daniel C. McCorkle
Sea surface temperature (SST) across much of the tropics has increased by 0.4° to 1°C since the mid-1970s. A parallel increase in the frequency and extent of coral bleaching and mortality has fueled concern that climate change poses a major threat to the survival of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. Here we show that steadily rising SSTs, not ocean acidification, are already driving dramatic changes in the growth of an important reef-building coral in the central Red Sea. Three-dimensional computed tomography analyses of the massive coral Diploastrea heliopora reveal that skeletal growth of apparently healthy colonies has declined by 30% since 1998. The same corals responded to a short-lived warm event in 1941/1942, but recovered within 3 years as the ocean cooled. Combining our data with climate model simulations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we predict that should the current warming trend continue, this coral could cease growing altogether by 2070.
