Page 14 - Livre_MOW2022_EN

12 | CORALS, THE EXPOSED NERVES OF THE OCEAN

ADAPTATION
In the Red Sea,

corals are resistant

to rising temperatures

What if some corals were able to endure climate change?
A Swiss research centre focused on the Red Sea is studying

on the unique fate of corals in this region. A glimpse of hope
for the coral reefs of the future.

CORALS
HEIRS OF A THOUSAND-
YEAR-OLD HISTORY
Where do these Red Sea corals get their extraordinary
resilience? We need to go back to their distant past to
understand, more specifically to the last ice age du-
ring which the narrow Red Sea geological basin was
isolated from the Indian Ocean and saw practically all
its aquatic life disappear due to the increase in salinity.
“After the last glacial cycle over 6,000 years ago, when
the Red Sea was once again connected to the ocean,
then recolonised by marine organisms from the Sou-
th, the coral population gradually adapted to the high
temperatures encountered in the southern part of the
Red Sea.” This is the story of the unique adaptation,
which spans a thousand years, of these corals and
the specificities resulting therefrom in regard to their
lineage, which the Swiss researcher Anders Meibom
presented to the audience, placing the opening eve-
ning of Monaco Ocean Week under the banner of the
living world’s adaptation to climate change.

IN
FIGURES

+ 5°C: the increase to water
temperatures endured by
corals in the Red Sea