Record hot seawater killed more than three-quarters of human-cultivated coral that scientists had placed in the Florida Keys in recent years in an effort to prop up a threatened species that’s highly vulnerable to climate change, researchers discovered.
They saw widespread death in both repopulated and wild coral on five Florida Keys reefs.
Only 22% of the 1,500 repopulated staghorn coral that they surveyed was still alive, NOAA said.
“What happened in 2023 was absolutely devastating,” said retired NOAA coral monitoring chief Mark Eakin, who now is corresponding secretary for the International Coral Reef Society.
“Coral restoration is almost certainly doomed to fail under climate change,” Baum said in an email.
Persons:
critters, Katey, ” Lesneski, Lesneski, “, It's, that's, ”, Mark Eakin, ” Eakin, Eakin, Julia Baum, ” Baum, it's, Seth Borenstein
Organizations:
National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, El Nino, NOAA, Looe Key, NOAA's, Coral Reef Society, University of Victoria, Associated Press
Locations:
Florida, elkhorn, El, Looe, AP.org