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Ecology (Communication arising)

Is coral bleaching really adaptive?

Abstract

From an experiment in which corals are transplanted between two depths on a Panamanian coral reef, Baker1 infers that bleaching may sometimes help reef corals to survive environmental change. Although Baker's results hint at further mechanisms by which reef-building corals may acclimatize to changing light conditions, we do not consider that the evidence supports his inference1.

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References

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Correspondence to Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.

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Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Jones, R., Ward, S. et al. Is coral bleaching really adaptive?. Nature 415, 601–602 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415601a

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