Chetterjee in PRI's The World, discusses how the projected continuation of global warming, water pollution, and over fishing is affecting coral reefs. He considers the claims from two researchers that suggest how climate change can work against, or in favor in the protection and future development of reefs.
For instance, he interviews an ecologist Terry Hughes of James cooke University who explained how climate change won’t necessarily cause coral reefs to become extinct, but will pressure coral species to become more resilient to rising temperatures. Marine biologist Steven Palumbi also agrees with Hughes and is conducting a series of experiments on a variety of coral species in hopes to gain a better understanding towards these issues.
Nevertheless, although both scientist identify how this can work in favor of the reef, its still unknown how this will affect the entire reef. For example as Hughes says, “Some of the more vulnerable species are often also the ones that provide the best habitat for other marine species. So losing them could hurt populations of fish and other marine species.”
In the end both scientist suggest that we shouldn’t give up on protecting the reefs because the fate corals depend on how well we address the issues affecting them.
