Under normal circumstances, coral reefs in many parts of the world would not be able to survive when the temperatures rise past 31 degrees.

However, the UAE costal reefs manage to not only survive, but thrive in temperatures as high as 35 degrees.

This has attracted the attention of a team for the department of Biology at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) which has a research team that explores ways of using its knowledge of Abu Dhabi corals to help coral reefs around the world.

The coral reefs at Abu Dhabi are particularly unique because there are no other examples of coral reefs being able to survive in the temperature range characteristic of Abu Dhabi?s waters.

In locations across the world, particularly in the low-latitude tropics, in areas around the equator-the coral reefs in the Caribbean and the tropical islands in the Indo-Pacific would be dead if exposed to the conditions that the Abu Dhabi corals are able to withstand.

For the research team at NYUAD, the objective is to learn how these corals manage to survive and adapt to these temperatures and how what they have learnt may be useful in helping to preserve coral reefs in other parts of the world affected by climate change.

One idea to help corals to thrive in other parts of the world suggests assisted migration wherein, corals are shifted from one region to another by way of human involvement.

The other suggestion is to cross- breed between the Abu Dhabi corals and corals in other parts of the world .Instead of relocation, the larvae could be cross- bred by taking the sperm or eggs from corals in the Gulf and crossing them with colonies in the Great Barrier Reef or other locations in other parts of the world.

This is being seen as a way of increasing the genetic capacity for corals to be thermo-tolerant and is garnering renewed attention from a lot of scientists in studying the coral reefs in the region.

Studying them also helps to understand how climate change could affect coral reefs and their ecosystem.

While the Abu Dhabi corals may serve as a model of hardiness in the extremities of climate change, their spread either through assisted migration or cross breeding should not be exploited so as to harm the corals themselves, as though it may be a very viable way of preserving them, it is also very prone to exploitation and serves as a temporary stopgap.

I say it is a temporary stopgap, because while it seems like a very viable solution, it should not be turned to for convenience sake, as the way to deal with it in a more long term manner would be to enact measures to reduce the effects of climate change, with a special emphasis being given to these areas.