A Salty Coral Secret: How High Salinity Helps Corals To Be Stronger

Hagen Gegner, Christian R. Voolstra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Corals are mysterious animals that have been around for ages. They are the creators of beautiful reefs. Sadly, the reefs that we love to look at are in danger of overheating and are disappearing from our planet. While this sounds bad, not all corals are affected the same way by warm seawater. Corals from the Red Sea seem to be more resistant to higher temperatures than are corals from other regions. Red Sea reefs are thriving in seawater that is hotter than that in other places. But what is their secret? What makes Red Sea corals stronger and more heat resistant? We know that Red Sea corals not only handle the incredibly high temperatures, but also deal with high salinity (saltiness). This connection between high salinity and high temperature made us wonder: can we find evidence that high salinity makes corals stronger?
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalFrontiers for Young Minds
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 7 2019

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01

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