In the research, led by Peggy Fong from the University of California, United States, the scientists explained that almost half the corals at the same depth were bleached.
The research said that temperatures might not return to normality until early 2016 and also that another overheated wave caused by El Niño will affect the area soon, something that could represent the highest death rate of corals in the tropical eastern area of the Pacific Ocean in almost 20 years.
The event El Niño from 1982 to 1983 was the first to show that the heat leads to the bleaching and death of corals, while in that period, nearly 75 percent of the corals researched in the area, near the Panamanian island of Coiba, were killed.
From 1997 to 1998, near 13 percent of corals were killed, although researches indicated that they can adapt to changes of temperature caused by El Niño in the oceans.
Nevertheless, trends of the climatic change suggest that in the future, oceans will be warmer and acid, as result of the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
hr/eav/mgt/npg
PL-8/MNA
Your Comment