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Deep coral reefs in a "twilit zone" in the oceans differ greatly from those near the surface, dampening the hope that they may serve as a refuge for marine life fleeing threats such as climate change and pollution. Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, Owner and Manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Dives during an inspection. the state of the reef in an area called "Coral Gardens" located at Lady Elliot Island in Queensland
OSLO: Deep coral reefs in a "twilit zone" in the oceans are distinctly different from those near the surface, dampening the hope that they may be Scientists said Thursday that coral reefs in shallow waters are among the ecosystems most at risk from climate change. The Great Barrier Reef off Australia has undergone intense bleaching, a bleaching caused by warm waters that can kill corals, in 2016 and 2017.
A team of American divers who studied the little known reefs of the western Atlantic. and the Pacific oceans between 30 and 150 meters (100-500 feet) deep where sunlight fades, most species of coral and fish did not resemble those of the surface. 1965, p. Rocha from the California Academy of Sciences told Reuters of the results published in the scientific journal.
Less than five percent of fish and corals were found in both deep and deep waters against the previous estimate of 60-75 percent scientists, based "Deep reefs can play a refuge role much less than we had hoped for before, "they wrote. And like shallow reefs, deep reefs have also been threatened by climate change, storms and pollution.
Divers have found, for example, plastic fishing nets entangled in the deep corals of the Philippines. Scientists were trying to place temperature sensors in the twilight zone to see how deep reefs were exposed to rising ocean temperatures, which are the most extreme at the surface
The reefs covered at least the same oceanic area around the world as shallow reefs, he said. Some reefs, such as those at the mouth of the Amazon River, exist only in the depths.
The authors advocate better guarantees for deep reefs, for example by expanding protected areas and prohibiting bottom trawls that can scratch the seabed. A 2016 study by the United Nations Environment Program found that some deep reefs could be "lifeboats" for the nearer, shallower, interconnected reefs
. to be as vulnerable as the shallower reefs "to human pressure.
Details of the study of Science: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6399/281
(Report by Alister Doyle, edited by John Stonestreet)
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