While on one hand scientists fear that global warming will one day devastate the under ocean corals, on the other it is recently found that there are some reefs that appear to be able to survive higher water temperatures. And they interestingly do this by accelerating their feeding rates. A study in the journal Nature reports this.
The Hawaiian branching coral Montipora capitata recovered from bleaching caused by global warming. And it did this by increasing its intake of tiny plankton. Unlike these branching corals, other species, such as Porites compressa and Porites lobata, did not increase its diet amount.
Since, climate change represents the greatest single threat to the future survival of coral reefs, the new findings prove significant. It is a ground breaking discovery, as scientists predict that it is in the next few decades, as much as 60 percent of reefs may die worldwide as the ocean temperatures are getting warmer alarmingly.