Growth of Western Australian Corals in the Anthropocene

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Cooper, Timothy F., O’Leary, Rebecca A., Lough, Janice M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1214570; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1214570

Heat or Acid? The question of how tropical coral reefs will respond to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and concomitant climate change is widely debated. Model predictions and laboratory experiments suggest that decreasing carbonate saturation and decreasing pH may reduce calcification in carbonate-depositing organisms, including corals, yet field data are sparse, and recent declines in coral growth rates have been variously attributed to thermal stress or ocean acidification. Cooper et al. (p. 593 ) demonstrate that there has been no large-scale decline in calcification rates of massive Porites on coral reefs along the Indian Ocean coast of Western Australia. Instead, coral growth has increased significantly in the past 110 years, particularly at high latitudes. Thus, coral calcification appears to increase as ocean waters warm, but—at excessive temperatures—coral bleaching and reduced ocean carbonate saturation may lead to growth declines as observed on the Great Barrier Reef.