Experiments carried out by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) found that a species of algae that live and reproduce naturally in some types of coral could increase the reef organisms' heat tolerance.

"A mechanism exists in coral that allows them to rapidly change how well they can cope with environmental conditions," said Madeleine Van Oppen, a senior AIMS research scientist.

"The algae inside the coral tissues use sunlight to make the energy and a large part of this energy or food is available to the coral," she said.

"It leaks out of the algal cells into the coral tissues, so the algae actually works as sort of solar panels."

By changing the algae inside their tissues, coral can alter their own physiology in ways that help them adapt to environmental changes like rising sea temperatures, she said.

Warming seas have been blamed for causing one of the greatest threats to the world's tropical reefs, coral bleaching -- a process where the colorful tissue of the coral dies off, leaving the white skeleton behind.

Scientists have predicted that colourful corals which make up Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other tropical reefs will fall dramatically and die in numbers by 2050 because of warming seawater.

SPACE.WIRE