A recent Chagos study shows that substantial reef recovery is possible after large-scale warming events. This article by Climate Progress cites Living Oceans Foundation’s recent Global Reef Expedition mission to BIOT relative to the study and their significance with respect to recent climate trends.

Chagos Study Shows Coral Reefs Can Be ‘Incredibly Resilient’ To Warming Events

ClimateProgress
December 17, 2015
Alejandro Davila Fragoso

Coral reefs have had a tough time in the last two decades as warming temperatures, overfishing, chemical runoff, and disease have sparked massive coral die-offs. But reefs in the Indian Ocean show that substantial recovery is possible, a study released Wednesday found.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, looks at 28 reefs in the remote Chagos Archipelago, an area that lost 90 percent of its corals in 1998 after an unprecedented rise in sea temperatures. Nearly 20 years later, coral reefs there are back to optimum health, demonstrating that reefs can bounce back “rapidly” from major climate-driven disturbances…

..The theory is that “if a reef’s ecosystem is in good shape and it hasn’t been damaged and polluted and degraged, then the natural resilience of the coral reef will help it survive and resurface,” said Philip Renaud, executive director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, who wasn’t involved in the study but whose team was in Chagos early this year observing the same improvements the study recorded…

…In fact, Renaud said his team saw bleaching happening in Chagos, but as the monsoon season came in bringing cooler temperatures, is likely that the coral recovered…