Despite Global Warming, Coral Reefs May Still Have Diverse Range Of Species

What We Can't Sea

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In this episode, we explore how climate change is affecting coral reefs. We also learn about the innovative ways scientists are working to protect coral reefs in a changing world.

When most people hear the words “coral reef” they picture brightly colored fish and the strange, other-worldly shapes of the three-dimensional coral structure. Although these larger organisms are characteristic of coral reefs and highly relevant to the fisheries and tourism economies, coral reefs are also home to much greater biodiversity that is largely hidden from our eye’s first glance. Biodiversity is crucial in ecosystem resilience because it provides a sort of “insurance” against stressors – losing one species will be less likely to cause ecosystem collapse if biodiversity is high. Coral reefs’ hidden biodiversity is made up of millions of tiny organisms called “cryptobiota”. Think of this group of organisms as analogous to the insects of a rainforest – hidden among the larger, more recognizable species. Just as in the case of insects constituting a large part of the biodiversity in a rainforest, coral reef cryptobiota make up most of the biodiversity found on coral reefs.