Tank with combined future ocean conditions—wamer and more acidic. (Photo credit: R. McLachlan and A. Grottol)

UH, first published on 3/11/2022

A long-term study of Hawaiian coral species provided a surprisingly optimistic view of how they might survive warmer and more acidic oceans resulting from climate change.

Study authors, including researchers from the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, found that the three coral species studied experienced significant mortality under conditions that simulated ocean temperatures and acidity expected in the future—up to about half of some of the species died. But none of them completely died off—and some actually were thriving by the end of the study.

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