How coral reefs might survive climate change

Warming waters are killing some of the world’s most spectacular coral, but scientists are scrambling to protect vulnerable areas and develop hardier species.

Opal Reef, part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, was damaged when ocean temperatures spiked in 2016 and 2017. “The once colorful coral was a gray ruin and all but dead—a skeletal statue created by climate change,” says David Doubilet. To document how climate change affects reefs, he and Jennifer Hayes returned to some of the most stunning corals they’d previously photographed.
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