Jenny Lauren Lee
Source: Science News
September 9, 2009

When Caribbean coral reefs are in hot water, one alga takes advantage of the situation — and possibly comes to the rescue.

A rare type of alga proliferated in several species of coral in the Caribbean Sea while warming waters were killing other algal inhabitants, researchers report in the Sept. 8 Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The authors say that their two-year study raises questions about how opportunistic algae might affect coral colonies dealing with the physical stress of increasing ocean temperatures.

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