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Coral reefs around the world have experienced mass laundering episodes and are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Famous, the Great Barrier Reef experienced a disaster consecutive whitening events in 2016 and 2017.
Scientists are currently trying to predict how the world's corals will react to the warming ocean temperatures caused by climate change.
The future does not look promising, but research has shown that corals can adapt to environmental changes and recover. But can corals keep up with the fast pace of climate change? And what methods of intervention can conservationists use to help corals recover?
Researchers from University of California at Santa Barbara and Rice University conducted a new study on the relationship between rising temperatures, aggressive fish and coral recovery to determine the impact of fish on coral growth.
The results, published in the journal Behavioral ecology, show that an increase in water temperature can benefit to some extent to the corals because it increases the aggressiveness of some species of fish keeping the reef.
"Prediction of the future of corals will require a systemic approach," said Jonathan Pruitt, the lead author of the study. "Failure to consider broader ecological processes, such as species interactions, could lead us to make false predictions about how some corals will behave in future environments."
For the study, researchers focused on farmed fish (stégastes nigricans), which are an aggressive damselfish species that live around coral reefs in tropical climates. The fish keep the algae gardens, that's how they get their name, and the researchers wanted to see how the aggression of the farmer's fish affected the performance of the corals.
The researchers planted coral fragments in 29 colonies of farmer fish with varying levels of aggression in French Polynesia and observed colonies for one year between 2016 and 2017.
Aggressiveness was assessed by the size of the fish and the reaction of a group to an intruder. The researchers also measured coral growth and recovery.
At the end of the study, researchers found that aggression correlated with an increase in the number of branched corals near farmer fish colonies. Corals that have been planted in territories where farmer fish are not aggressive have undergone 80% more damage compared to aggressive colony corals.
Although larger fish were more aggressive, researchers found that group aggression was more important than size in determining coral performance.
Researchers say that as warmer waters can increase fish aggression, coral recovery may be more likely than previously thought in a warming world.
"Warming up a lot of corals can have a negative impact on various physiological processes," Pruitt said. "However, this study shows that small increases could provide better protection for resident fish. Obviously, this can not last forever. At some point, all the protection of the world will matter little if corals can not feed themselves. "
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By Kay Vandette, Earth.com Editor
Payed by Earth.com
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