Geoengineering climate can save coral reefs – ABC Color

MADRID. Coral reefs are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change, but could be saved for future destruction with the use of geo-engineering technique that involves the injection of gas in the stratosphere.

That’s according to a study published in Nature Climate Change .

The increase in sea surface temperature and ocean acidification caused by rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, as are some of the causes that cause bleaching of coral reefs.

This condition can seriously damage or destroy whole systems coral reefs and is expected to intensify in the coming decades due to stress exerted on corals by increasing the temperature of the sea water.

Experts believe that even under the most ambitious reduction scenarios CO2, the middle of this century there will be a severe and widespread extension of that ailment affecting the collars.

However, a geoengineering technique called management sunlight (SRM English) can reduce the risk of severe coral bleaching globally, suggests a study from the Carnegie Institution for Sicence of the University of Exeter and the Hadley Centre for Climate Change (United Kingdom) and the Australian University of Queensland.

The SRM method involves injecting gas into the Earth’s stratosphere -in which the simulation based on the study speak of sulfur-dioxide to form microscopic particles that reflect part of the sun’s energy and thus help limit the increased sea surface temperature.

The study bought the effects of the possible extent with the more aggressive scenarios for reducing CO2 emissions covered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change UN ( IPCC) and concludes that coral reefs will fare much better with geoengineering techniques despite the increasing acidification of the oceans.

Professor Peter Cox University Exeter and coauthor of the study noted that coral reefs face a serious situation regardless of the intensity with which society ‘Decarbonize’ its economy. “

For Cox, the study shows that” there to choose between accepting the inevitable loss of a large percentage of the coral reefs or start thinking beyond the conventional reduction of CO2 emissions “.