Ph.D. student Fabian Gösser from the Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity has been studying how corals react to changing environmental conditions and how their stress response could contribute to the survival of the reefs. The RUB biologist’s research focuses on the phenomenon of polyp bailout, i.e. the expulsion of small, bud-like individual corals called polyps. Under stress, the colony of polyps that form a stony coral dissolves. The individual polyps can then settle elsewhere and form new coral colonies. The phenomenon of polyp bailout has been little studied so far—and neither has the potential of this response for the survival of the reefs. An article has been featured in the RUB’s science magazine Rubin.
Click here for original story, How corals react to climate change
Source: Phys.org