Red Sea 'super corals' resistant to rising ocean temperatures - in pictures

Scientists hope the coral can provide an answer to the threat faced by all the world's reefs

Despite sea temperatures in the Gulf of Aqaba rising faster than the global average rate, the coral reef at the northernmost point of the Red Sea seems immune to the effects of global warming. All photos: Getty

Academics at Israel's Interuniversity Institute for Marine Scientists are trying to understand the biological capacity of these corals that allows them to thrive at higher temperatures.

Graduate student Ayala Porat and academic intern Kerem Citak set traps to catch coral larvae at a depth of six metres.

Divers return the following morning to collect the larvae collected in a jar at the top of the net.

Collected coral larvae are used in experiments to assess the environment's impact on their development and survival.

The Underwater Observatory Marine Park in Eilat with its easily recognisable tower and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences building on the right.

Graduate student Chen Azulay performs a coral dissection under microscope. Ms Azulay performs coral dissections twice a month to understand their reproduction cycle much better.

Samples collected from the coral nursery at a depth of six metres are prepared for processing.

Prof Maoz Fine, head of the Laboratory for Coral Reef Ecology at the university institute, looks over a Red Sea Simulator. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have resulted in a lowering of pH conditions and higher temperatures in the oceans.

Prof Fine maintains on a coral monitoring station in Eilat, Israel. The station is the first monitoring station installed in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea.

The scientific community estimates that more than 90 per cent of reefs will die by 2050 due to climate change and direct human impact.

Coral reefs are complete ecosystems, and although the reef in Eilat is, perhaps, capable of withstanding climate change, it is also under threat from human factors such as tourism development, waste run-off into the sea and light pollution.

The corals in this Red Sea gulf might be one of the last remaining complete ecosystems by 2100.

However, there is a possibility that this surviving coral reef could be used as a blueprint for an entirely new climate-resistant ecosystem.

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