Pacific islands 'may become refuges for corals, fish'
30 April 2012 7:31 PM GMT
The Pacific islands may become isolated refuges for corals and fish when ocean temperatures rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century as predicted, say scientists.
A team at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution says that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way and mitigate the warming near a handful of islands on the equator where corals and fish would take refuge, the 'Nature Climate Change' journal reported.
'Global models predict significant temperature increase in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island,' Anne Cohen, a team member, said.
Added team leader Kristopher Karnauskas: 'Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7 [degrees Celcius] per century."
A handful of coral atolls on the Equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers in area, may not seem like much. But the research says waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands two degrees north and south of the equator.
That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems, say the scientists.
'While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare the corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands, which may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive,' Karnauskas said.
Added Cohen: 'The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands.'
A team at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution says that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way and mitigate the warming near a handful of islands on the equator where corals and fish would take refuge, the 'Nature Climate Change' journal reported.
'Global models predict significant temperature increase in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island,' Anne Cohen, a team member, said.
Added team leader Kristopher Karnauskas: 'Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7 [degrees Celcius] per century."
A handful of coral atolls on the Equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers in area, may not seem like much. But the research says waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands two degrees north and south of the equator.
That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems, say the scientists.
'While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare the corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands, which may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive,' Karnauskas said.
Added Cohen: 'The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands.'
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