Simple shades made from PVC pipe and nylon fabric helped brain corals in the Florida Keys cope with a marine heatwave, according to BBC Wildlife. Researchers led by Karen Neely of Nova Southeastern University placed 20 of the custom-built “umbrellas” over 10 coral colonies at Newfound Harbor in the summer of 2024, and monitored 20 unshaded corals nearby for comparison.
Each shade sat about 30cm above the coral and cut the light reaching it by roughly 60%. That summer brought the second-highest heat stress on record for the area, yet the shaded corals lost less colour than expected, and some regained colour once the shades went up. None of the corals in the study died.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, point to a cheap, practical way of sheltering especially valuable colonies when the water gets too warm. Neely is careful not to oversell it: “Shading is not a cure-all for coral reefs,” she said. As a temporary, small-scale shield, though, it did its job.
Source: BBC Wildlife