Functional extinction of Florida’s reef-building corals following the 2023 marine heatwave

Summary author: Walter Beckwith

2025-10-23

(Press-News.org) The record-breaking 2023 marine heatwave has killed nearly all of Florida’s critically endangered Acropora coral colonies, marking the species’ functional extinction in Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR), researchers report. The findings sound a dire warning for the future of coral ecosystems in our rapidly warming oceans. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, such as marine heat waves, are severely undermining the health, structure, and resilience of ecosystems worldwide. Coral reefs, among the most heat-sensitive marine environments, have suffered decades of mass bleaching and mortality due to rising ocean temperatures. Here, Derek Manzello and colleagues evaluated the effects of the 2023 marine heatwave on Florida’s critically endangered reef-building Acropora palmata (elkhorn) and Acropora cervicornis (staghorn) corals. According to Manzello et al., during the unprecedented event, Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR) experienced the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded in the region, peaking at 32.3 degrees Celsius in July 2023. As this heatwave persisted, the authors tracked the health of 52,356 wild and restored Acropora coral colonies across the ~560-kilometer length of FCR. They found that by March 2024, between 97.8 and 100% of A. palmata and A. cervicornis coral colonies in the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas had died due to prolonged and extreme thermal stress. Coral mortality was lower (37.9%) in the northerly reaches of the FCR, likely due to the cooler ocean waters off southeast Florida. Manzello et al. argue that the 2023 marine heatwave marked the functional extinction of Caribbean Acropora species in Florida, ending a reef-building legacy in the region that has occurred over the last 250,000 to 500,000 years. The findings may also portend the onset of a Caribbean-wide extinction of these thermally sensitive species. “Aggressive interventions, such as introduction of heat-tolerant genotypes and genetic diversity from outside Florida, as well as algal symbiont manipulation, might be the only means to maintain any Acropora populations in Florida,” write the authors.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Duck-billed dinosaur “mummies” preserve fleshy hide and hooves in thin layers of clay

2025-10-23

New paleontological findings offer insights into Wyoming’s “dinosaur mummies,” revealing that the stunningly preserved skin, spikes, and hooves of duck-billed dinosaurs are not fossilized flesh at all, but delicate clay molds formed by microbes as the creatures decayed, researchers report. Soft-tissue preservation in fossils usually occurs in fine-grained, oxygen-poor environments such as lagoons or seabeds, which enable the fossilization of delicate structures like feathers and skin. However, the so-called “dinosaur ...

Fatty winter snacks may trick the body into packing on the pounds

2025-10-23

Fatty Winter Snacks May Trick the Body into Packing on the Pounds A new study from UC San Francisco shows that our natural eating patterns are more closely tied to seasonal rhythms than previously thought. Next time you’re tempted to raid the pantry for snacks loaded with saturated fat — especially in winter — you might want to consider that the result could be a mounting urge for high-calorie nibbles. That’s because, from our body’s perspective, saturated fat — which ...

Hitchhiking DNA picked up by gene, saves a species from extinction

2025-10-23

An international research team led by Hiroki Shibuya at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan has solved a genetic mystery and revealed a previously unknown way that DNA can control what cells do. Published in Science on Oct 23, the study reveals that in the roundworm C. elegans, vital RNA needed to keep the ends of chromosomes intact does not have its own gene. Instead, it hitchhikes inside another one. DNA hitchhiking could be a common strategy in the animal kingdom, and has implications for anti-aging therapies and regenerative medicine in humans. Telomeres are DNA ...

Cellarity publishes framework for discovery of cell state-correcting medicines in Science

2025-10-23

SOMERVILLE, Mass., October 23, 2025 – Cellarity, a biotechnology company developing Cell State-Correcting therapies through integrated multi-omics and AI modeling, today announced the publication of a seminal manuscript in the journal Science, which articulates a framework for the integration of advanced transcriptomic datasets and AI models to improve drug discovery. Cellarity designs novel therapeutics for complex diseases by focusing on the interplay of pathway connections and interactions that define and modulate cellular states. The company has built ...

Peatlands’ ‘huge reservoir’ of carbon at risk of release

2025-10-23

ITHACA, N.Y. - Peatlands make up just 3% of the earth’s land surface but store more than 30% of the world’s soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that an extreme drought event could quadruple peatland carbon loss in a warming climate. In the study, published Oct. 23 in Science, researchers find that, under conditions that mimic a future climate (with warmer temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide), extreme drought dramatically increases the release of carbon in peatlands by nearly three ...

Dinosaurs in New Mexico thrived until the very end, study shows

2025-10-23

For decades, many scientists believed dinosaurs were already dwindling in number and variety long before an asteroid strike sealed their fate 66 million years ago. But new research in the journal Science from Baylor University, New Mexico State University, The Smithsonian Institution and an international team is rewriting that story. The dinosaurs, it turns out, were not fading away. They were flourishing. A final flourish in the San Juan Basin In northwestern New Mexico, layers of rock preserve a hidden chapter of Earth’s history. In the Naashoibito Member of the Kirtland ...

Miniscule wave machine opens big scientific doors

2025-10-23

University of Queensland researchers have made a microscopic ‘ocean’ on a silicon chip to miniaturise the study of wave dynamics. The device, made at UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics, uses a layer of superfluid helium only a few millionths of a millimetre thick on a chip smaller than a grain of rice. Dr Christopher Baker said it was the world’s smallest wave tank, with the quantum properties of superfluid helium allowing it to flow without resistance, unlike classical fluids such as water, which become immobilised by viscosity at such small scales. “The study of how fluids move has ...

Sanger Institute: Origins of the ‘London Underground mosquito’ uncovered, shedding light on West Nile virus transmission

2025-10-23

Embargoed: 23 October 19:00 UK / 14:00 US Eastern Times Peer-reviewed / Experimental / Mosquito genomics ORIGINS OF THE ‘LONDON UNDERGROUND MOSQUITO’ UNCOVERED, SHEDDING LIGHT ON WEST NILE VIRUS TRANSMISSION Subtitle for website: International researchers disprove theory about the evolution of urban mosquito species. New research has uncovered the ancient origins of an urban mosquito species, Culex pipiens form molestus, also known as the ‘London Underground mosquito’ – disproving a long-held theory of when it first evolved. Published today (23 October) in Science, ...

Global study reveals tempo of invasive species‘ impacts

2025-10-23

Biological invasions occur when non-native or exotic species colonize new geographic regions, often to the detriment of local plants and animals. Today, human action contributes significantly to invasion processes, allowing species to bridge vast distances and enter new habitats at a highly accelerated rate. This makes it increasingly important to better understand the impact of invasions on ecosystems. Researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Konstanz (Germany) and the Northeast Forestry University (China), have now shown how the ...

Study uncovers origins of urban human-biting mosquito, sheds light on uptick in West Nile virus spillover from birds to humans

2025-10-23

Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus,evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past 200 years. It’s been held up as an example of a species’ ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and urbanization. Now, a new study led by Princeton University researchers disproves that theory, tracing the origins of the molestus mosquito to more than 1,000 years ago in the Mediterranean or Middle East. The paper publishes October 23 in the journal Science. “This ...

Functional extinction of Florida’s reef-building corals following the 2023 marine heatwave

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: