Coral Reefs: Is Climate Engineering the Key to Saving Them?

With their numbers rapidly diminishing, the fate of coral reefs has been of utmost concern to scientists around the world in recent years. And while some have said climate engineering, or geoengineering, is not the solution to climate change, a new study says it could be the key to saving the Earth's coral reefs from mass bleaching, at least.

Coral reefs are considered one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to future climate change due to rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification, which is caused by higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, one of the world's most iconic ecosystems, is even at risk of collapsing.

Mass coral bleaching, which can lead to coral deaths, is predicted to occur far more frequently over the coming decades, due to the stress exerted by higher seawater temperatures. Already, these marine organisms are experiencing extensive bleaching events - for example, those in Hawaii are seeing the most intense bleaching in decades, a sign of exhaustion and poor health for corals.

Scientists believe that, even under the most ambitious future CO2 reduction scenarios, widespread and severe coral bleaching and degradation will occur by the middle of this century.

Previous research has suggested that herbivorous and predatory fish are the answer to corals' problems, but now a team of researchers - collectively from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Exeter, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of Queensland - proposes that a geoengineering technique called Solar Radiation Management (SRM) may reduce the future risk of global severe bleaching. (Scroll to read on...)