Corals may head south to beat the heat

The tropical corals of Western Australia may be heading south due to climate change.

The seaboard between Perth and Geraldton could end up with coral reefs as rich and varied as the celebrated reefs of Ningaloo, two marine scientists say in new research. Working from fossil evidence of what happened in WA under an earlier warm phase in the global climate 125,000 years ago, Professor John Pandolfi of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Professor Benjamin Greenstein of Cornell College, Iowa, USA; conclude tropical corals could soon be headed south once more to escape warming oceans. With oceans warming again due to greenhouse, the rich, diverse northern corals are likely to spread south again, travelling on the Leeuwin current, in search of places to survive global warming and avoid impacts such as bleaching and coral disease, which occur when tropical waters warm too much for them to tolerate.
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