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VIDEO: Normally, a sea urchin (Echinometra lucunter) can right itself as it does in this video, but when it doesn t have enough oxygen or is too hot, flipping over becomes more. view more
Credit: Jarrod Scott, STRI
As oceans warm and become more acidic and oxygen-poor, Smithsonian researchers asked how marine life on a Caribbean coral reef copes with changing conditions. During my study, water temperatures on reefs in Bocas del Toro, Panama, reached an alarming high of almost 33 degrees C (or 91 degrees F), temperatures that would make most of us sweat or look for air conditioning options not available to reef inhabitants, said Noelle Lucey, post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).