Symptoms of Coral Reef Bleaching (Cont)

Another study provides evidence that corals can acclimatise to increasing temperature by altering the concentrations of different species of zooxanthellae within their tissues (Berkelmans & Van Oppen, 2006), so over time a coral can be populated by less resistant species and then more resistant species following a rise in SST. This ability is only possible in a minority of coral species that are capable of giving residence to more than one zooxanthellae species simultaneously. An increase in tolerance of 1-1.5°C was discovered in the coral species studied. Further research into these issues could help identify the threat posed by bleaching more accurately as if these results are backed up, long term recovery of bleached reefs may be more viable than currently thought.