We are currently seeing shifts in coral community composition towards more stress-tolerant corals. Our model also suggests that this will reverse later this century, favouring fast-growing branching corals in the long term. There is some potential evidence for this in the geological record. (13/16)

As the ocean warms, conditions become less habitable for corals in the tropics, but some higher latitude seas might become more conducive to coral reef formation. Coral larvae can drift over large distances by ocean currents, so it is possible for coral reefs to shift polewards. (5/16)

Can tropical corals find refuge at higher latitudes under future warming? In our new paper in Science Advances, we argue that coral range expansion will be *far too slow* for most coral species to outpace climate change. 🪸🌊
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A short 🧵 (1/16)