Cold-water Corals in a Changing Climate

25 Mar 2022

A brief note from John Appah

Leading experts of climate change have predicted a 2.4°C increase in the global average temperature by the end of the century leading to an increase in the suitability of pathogen group infections and rare disease if the current rate of CO₂ emissions are not curbed. The Paris Agreement has a global average temperature increase of 1.5°C as its target, although it’s unclear if this target can be achieved. As part of UCC MGRG’s research and proactive measures, we aim to monitor and to screen for rare pathogen groups such as Haplosporidia, Vibrio sp. and Rickettsiales-like organisms in the CWCs off-shore Ireland to ensure a healthy CWCs ecosystems using state of the art molecular techniques in addition to histological data.