koralrev - ingen ved hvor længe vi har dem endnu

Dr Sebastian Hennige, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, said: "This study highlights that a major threat to these wonderful deep-sea ecosystems is structural weakening caused by ocean acidification, driven by the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide we produce. While deep-sea reefs exist out of sight they are certainly not out of mind, and our work highlights how scientists from different disciplines and countries can join together to tackle global challenges."

The corals in Southern California -- one the most acidified reefs studied to date -- are already experiencing the effects of climate change and exist in conditions that most deep-sea reefs are expected to encounter by the end of the century, scientists say.

Dr. Peter Etnoyer, of NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, said: "Deep-sea corals growing off Southern California are a window into the future ocean. The region is a natural laboratory to study the effects of ocean acidification."

From 2014 to 2017, about 75 percent of the world's tropical coral reefs experienced warm conditions severe enough to trigger bleaching events, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And in 2016 and 2017, about half the coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef died after record heat triggered mass bleaching.