Essay by Eric Worrall
A rare piece of good news on the Guardian’s climate change story.
One of the UK’s rarest corals expands as climate change warms the seas
Pink marine propellers, at risk of being swept to the bottom, are predicted to spread north around the coast to Scotland as sea temperatures rise
Karen McVeigh @ karenmcveigh1 Friday, May 27, 2022 21.00 AEST
It is one of the rarest in the UK and most threatened speciesmainly by bottom trawling, but researchers have found that pink sea fan corals can expand their range during the climate crisis.
A slow-growing coral found in shallow waters from the western Mediterranean to northwestern Ireland and southwestern England and Wales, the pink sea fan (Eunicella verrucosa) is classified by the International Union as vulnerable because Preservation of Nature.
But a study by researchers from the University of Exeter suggests the species is likely to spread northward – including further around the English coast as far as Scotland – by 2100 as global temperatures rise.
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Dr Tom Jenkins, from the University of Exeter, said: “We built models to predict current and future pink sea fan habitats over an area that includes the Bay of Biscay, the British Isles and southern Norway.”
Using a global warming model known as RCP 8.5, the researchers predict that by 2100 there will be suitable habitat for pink sea fans north of the current range. Research shows that successful colonization will depend on a number of factors, including dispersion and competition.
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What I find fascinating is that The Guardian writes about the positive benefits of climate change – which is not often the case.
I don’t take warming predictions too seriously. RCP 8.5 is a pretty extreme climate scenario, > 1000ppm CO2 equivalent in 2100 (up from around 420ppm today), so I suspect professors might overestimate the rate of change.
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