STATE COLLEGE, Pa., June 23 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led international team of scientists says it has discovered why some coral reefs can better adapt to global warming than others.
Penn State University Assistant Professor Iliana Baums, one of the team's leaders, said discovering how corals respond to ocean warming is complicated because corals serve as hosts to algae that feed on its nitrogen wastes. Through photosynthesis, the algae then produce the carbohydrates that feed the coral. But when a rise in ocean temperature upsets the symbiosis, the coral may expel the algae in a phenomenon known as coral bleaching, which can cause the death of both algae and coral.