Microorganisms can be the killers of corals

According to the scientists' speech on April 2, 2008 at the 162th Society for General Microbiology session, corals can die slowly due to changes occurring to the bacteria that live on their bodies and cause them directly. is the rise in temperature caused by global warming.

Tropical ecosystems are now in a delicate equilibrium when climate is changing. Corals are single-celled, single-celled organisms that have polyps that can produce external bones with calcium carbonate. They are seriously threatened when the habitat is close to the upper limit of the temperature they can tolerate. They are very vulnerable even if the temperature only increases by 1 to 2 degrees above the normal level of summer.

Dr John Bythell, a biologist at Newcastle University, said: 'A lot of corals die after the coral age. In 1990 there were large areas of degraded coral reefs that reduced the number of coral in the world by 17%. The cause may stem from changes in microorganisms living in and around coral reefs. These microorganisms are like bacteria that live in our gut and help us digest food . '

Coral reefs in the South Pacific. Corals are single-celled single-celled organisms called polyps, which can produce external skeletons with calcium carbonate. They are threatened when the habitat is close to the upper limit of the temperature they can tolerate. (Photo: iStockphoto / Zeynep Mufti)

Changing sea temperatures due to climate change and global warming affects both corals and bacteria as well as the microorganisms that live with them. When the water temperature rises, some types of pathogenic bacteria dominate and attack the coral. The coral itself has suffered from rising temperatures, causing its resistance to decrease. Some of the beneficial bacteria that normally live in corals of the coral are weakened, so other harmful bacteria catch the chance to multiply, cause disease and other problems.

For communities in developing countries, corals are the main source of income for their fishing and tourism industries. Losing corals have a huge impact on the economy. They also lose valuable protective coral reefs while eroding the shoreline harms people's safety.

Dr. Bythell said: 'We need to learn more about the cycles and mechanisms that affect reefs and coral reefs as temperatures rise to identify the underlying causes of the decline in numbers. Coral. Although the implementation of local measures to reverse the decline of coral reefs is not very feasible, we still need deep knowledge to control and limit the causes of harm. Some changes to the habitat of adjustable microorganisms, such as reducing the overall number, removing soil and rock erosion, are choking coral reefs and limiting waste from cultivation activities. working on the sea '.

The Newcastle team recently discovered the key factor is the role of surface mucus secreted by corals. It acts as a shield to prevent pathogens such as bacteria and some viruses from entering the tissue. According to Dr. Bythell, 'Coral protection mucus or viscosity is also facing pressure from climate change. This can happen when several key functional microorganisms change, reducing the coral's defenses, promoting pathogenic bacteria and making them more dangerous. '

'If we want to protect and conserve coral for future generations, we must act immediately. Before we can do that, we need to thoroughly understand the processes. In the past 3000 years, there has been no phenomenon of the two main corals in the Caribbean sea, which have died massively due to illnesses like this. This shows that there is a strong connection to human activities'.

Newcastle scientists fear that despite the apparent relationship to the basic factors affecting corals that cause disease and make corals corroborated as well as the important role of microorganisms, Microbiology and coral cell biology are working independently on a large scale according to different research groups with different methods. Dr. Bythell said that scientists' efforts to find basic problems would be improved by combining molecular microbiology with molecular methods and coral cells.