As coral reefs have undergone massive bleaching events across the globe, the corals of Egypt’s Red Sea have offered some hope. They’ve been unusually resilient to rising water temperatures, and if the oceans continue getting hotter, some scientists even predict that Egypt’s northern reefs could become the world’s last-remaining corals.
\n\nThat’s what Mahmoud Hanafy, a professor of marine biology at Suez Canal University and consultant for the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), has previously predicted. But in the summers of 2023 and 2024, heat waves strained Red Sea coral ecosystems. A HEPCA survey led by Hanafy found bleaching throughout the Red Sea corals in 2024. In the northern areas, less than a tenth of coral colonies surveyed were affected, but further south, bleaching took out half the corals.
\n\nScientists are racing to piece together what these events mean for reefs long described as “super coral” for their unparalleled hardiness. But now the question is not just how much heat they can withstand, but what has protected them until recently—and whether that protection will hold.
\n\nIn overly warm waters, the algae nestled amongst the corals’ polyps begin to produce toxic substances. As a defense mechanism, the corals eject the…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/