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Episode details

Radio 4,06 Jan 2015,28 mins

The Future of Corals

Shared Planet

Available for over a year

Coral reefs are renowned for their beauty and diversity, and they provide us with a wondrous spectacle. Full of colourful fish, patrolled by sharks and visited by a host of exotic creatures from manta rays to turtles, they bring breath-taking colour to our seas. But what is their future? As our climate warms, so too do the oceans and corals are highly sensitive to changes in temperature. The increasing level of CO2 in our atmosphere means more is dissolved in seawater, making our oceans ever more acidic and hindering their ability to build their structures. Mass coral bleaching, when large areas of corals die and turn white, was unknown before the 1980s, now they are increasingly common in many areas of the ocean. The lack of build-up of new coral due to acidification is now measurable and many scientists are wondering how long coral reefs will survive. Monty Dom explores the future of coral in our stressed oceans and explores what can be done.

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