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A brutal heat wave, intensified by accelerating global climate change, turned the shallow waters around the Florida Keys into the ecological equivalent of hot bathwater this summer—shocking, and possibly killing, entire swathes of the Keys’ fragile coral reefs.
The death toll startled marine biologists who were already struggling to protect the reefs, the countless sea creatures they shelter, and the coastal communities they support. The losses lit a fire under the small community of specialists who are racing against man-made climate change to help the reefs adapt to hotter waters.
“We need to give reefs the best chance to get over a decades-long period of climate stress,” Andrew Baker, director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab at the University of Miami, told The Daily Beast.