Colorful coral reefs are a big attraction at Eliat, Israel's southernmost city and a popular resort located at the northern tip of the Red Sea. Corals are reef-building animals that are some of the planet's richest and most diverse ecosystems. But, warming oceans are causing corals around the world to deteriorate rapidly.
Higher than normal ocean temperatures damage algae that grows within the coral's tissue, causing the corals to turn white in a phenomenon known as "coral bleaching."
While coral bleaching is increasing globally, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, have not observed bleaching in the Gulf of Eliat. The scientists suggest the Gulf of Eliat is a unique refuge for coral reefs because of a "warm water barrier" that exists at the southern Red Sea, allowing only heat-tolerant genotypes of corals to enter from the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea.
