Nature and Biodiversity

An AI has uncovered coral reefs that are resistant to climate change

Tourists snorkel near a turtle as it looks for food amongst the coral in the lagoon at Lady Elliot Island north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 9, 2015. The lagoon, which is occupied by turtles during high tide, is only accessible for snorkelling during this time. UNESCO World Heritage delegates recently snorkelled on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, thousands of coral reefs, which stretch over 2,000 km off the northeast coast. Surrounded by manta rays, dolphins and reef sharks, their mission was to check the health of the world's largest living ecosystem, which brings in billions of dollars a year in tourism. Some coral has been badly damaged and animal species, including dugong and large green turtles, are threatened. UNESCO will say on Wednesday whether it will place the reef on a list of endangered World Heritage sites, a move the Australian government wants to avoid at all costs, having lobbied hard overseas. Earlier this year, UNESCO said the reef's outlook was "poor".  REUTERS/David GrayPICTURE 9 OF 23 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY "GREAT BARRIER REEF AT RISK"SEARCH "GRAY REEF" FOR ALL PICTURES

Scientists believe the world’s coral reef ecosystems could fully collapse as soon as 2050. Image: REUTERS/David Gray

Kristin Houser
Writer, Futurism

Underwater wasteland.

Global warming is destroying Earth’s coral reefs — the colorful underwater ecosystems simply can’t survive as the ocean warms and acidifies. However, researchers have now discovered a type of coral off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island that seems to be resistant to global warming. The discovery could help us ensure at least some of the world’s coral reefs survive climate change.

As part of 50 Reefs, an initiative designed to identify climate change-resistant corals, researchers spent six weeks in June and July using underwater scooters equipped with 360-degree cameras to take more than 56,000 images of shallow water reefs. In total, they snapped images of 3,851 square kilometers (1,487 square miles) worth of reefs.

Next, they needed to analyze all those images, and for that, they turned to artificial intelligence (AI) .

Analytical AI.

First, the researchers used about 400 to 600 images to train AI to identify different coral and invertebrate types within the image. After that, the system was able to identify and catalog the reef imagery on its own.

“The use of AI to rapidly analyze photographs of coral has vastly improved the efficiency of what we do — what would take a coral reef scientist 10 to 15 minutes now takes the machine a few seconds,” lead researcher Emma Kennedy told The Guardian.

From the AI’s analysis, the team determined that the Sulawesi reefs were actually in better shape in 2018 than when they were originally surveyed in 2014.

“After several depressing years as a coral reef scientist, witnessing the worst-ever global coral bleaching event, it is unbelievably encouraging to experience reefs such as these,” said Kennedy. “It means we still have time to save some coral reefs through the science-based targeting of conservation action.”

Have you read?

A need for coral.

If we don’t decrease our carbon dioxide emissions, scientists believe the world’s coral reef ecosystems could fully collapse as soon as 2050. Not only would this be catastrophic for ocean biodiversity — reefs shelter about one-fourth of marine species — it would also have a major impact on humanity.

Reefs protect our shorelines, and they could host future medical breakthroughs. They are also integral to tourism and fishing industries, which provides food and jobs for millions of people.

Now that researchers know certain reefs have a better chance than others of surviving global warming, they can hunt down those reefs throughout the world. After that, they could enact measures to ensure other threats — such as overfishing or pollution — don’t take out what may end up being the only reefs to make it past the 2050 milestone.

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