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These microbial heroes are saving corals from climate change, finds study | Technology News
Not all heroes wear capes, especially the ones that are single-celled microbes. Researchers discovered for the first time that the presence of certain microbes can tell them whether the coral will survive heat stress, often brought about by climate change.
“This is the first time that a non-algae microbe has been shown to influence the ability of corals to survive a heat-stress event. As corals face more and more heat-stress events due to climate change, a better understanding of all the microbes that may influence survivability can inform conservation practitioners as to which corals they should prioritize for intervention, said the study’s senior author Javier del Campo, in a press statement. Del Campo is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology IBE: CSIC-UPF in Barcelona, which led the study.
The international team of researchers collected samples of corals from across the Mediterranean Sea and analysed the bacteria that live with the corals. They then sequenced two types of rRNA to look at the bacteria and other single-celled organisms found in the microbiome of the violescent sea-whip, which is a species of soft coral. After that, they subjected the samples to heat stress to see how they withstood it.
The researchers found that the presence of a group of parasitic single-celled organisms called Syndiniales made it more likely that a coral could survive heat stress. But every hero story needs a villain, and this has one too — The presence of Corallicolids, a group of single-celled organism related to the parasite that causes malaria, was more common in corals that die from heat stress.
Corals are a crucial component of many marine ecosystems and more frequent ocean warming events are a great threat to them. The harm caused to corals by climate change can cascade into large biodiversity loss. That is why this study’s findings hold important implications as scientists across the world are looking for ways to better protect coral.