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76 | STRENGTHENING OCEANOGRAPHY

CLIMATE RESILIENCE
Are the corals of the

Red Sea an oceanic

exception?

© ALDEBARAN Scientists from the Transnational Red Sea Center are

expanding their missions to the Red Sea to unravel the mystery
of the resistance of its corals to global warming. Combining

science, technology, and diplomacy, they aim to preserve one
of the ocean's last coral haven.

"The corals of the Red Sea will survive global warming A GLOBAL EXCEPTION
and will certainly be the last corals of mankind. They
represent a unique ecosystem for future genera- The studies carried out by the Swiss school, which
tions," says Olivier Küttel, head of international affairs currently involve researchers from Djibouti, Israel,
at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Jordan, and Sudan, have shown that the corals in
(EPFL), as he sets the opening evening of Monaco this long-isolated geographical area are extremely re-
Ocean Week, on 21 March 2023, under the theme of sistant to rising water temperatures, withstanding up
adapting living organisms to climate change. to 5°C of warming, as well as to acidification of the
waters. On his return from the southern tip of the Red
Sea, in the Gulf of Tadjourah (Djibouti), biochemist
Anders Meibom, director of the EPFL’s Transnational
Red Sea Centre notes the exceptional health and di-
PROFILE versity of the corals: "In September, the temperature
averaged 31°C during the seasonal maximum, well
above what most other corals can withstand in other
Created in 2019, the Transnational parts of the world."
Red Sea Centre is the first research
centre of its scale to have cutting-edge
technology for genetic analysis and 3D
mapping of coral reefs. The results are
made available to everyone, under the
principles of 'Open Science'.