Scholars from California State University (Northridge)and experts from east Taiwan's National Dong Hwa University on Wednesday officially opened the Taiwan Coral Research Center, based in the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in southern Taiwan's Pingtung county.
The center's scientists will study the unique nature of Taiwan's coral reefs, which are found mostly in southern Taiwan, as well as off its outlying islands.
"Alternate current movements in the western Pacific make the living conditions of Taiwan's coral reefs better than many countries, " Fan Tong-yun, one of the Taiwanese researchers in the team noted, saying that was a key reason why the research center was set up.
Waters off southern Taiwan's coast, such as near Kenting, have a much higher coral cover rate -- 40 percent -- than the average rate of 20 percent in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.The phenomenon of coral bleaching, which turns the normally colorful corals into a dull pale hue, is also less serious here.
Coral bleaching is suspected to be caused by rising water temperatures and pollution as a result of global warming.
According to Fan, coral reefs all over the world, especially those in popular tourist destinations such as Hawaii, Tahiti and the Caribbean Sea, have seriously suffered in 2007 from coral bleaching.
But coral reefs in the sea off Kenting city in southernmost tip of Taiwan has escaped from the problem because there was an upwelling current in the sea, which prevented the sea temperature from rising too much, Fan said.
"Taiwan's know-how in coral conservation is ahead of many countries' in the world, " said Fan, from the marine biology museum, whose experts are also part of the team forming the coral reef center.
"It may even be Noah's Ark of corals, " Fan said. "But to reach that conclusion, we need to raise research on an international scale."
Experts from the coral research center will also study coral reefs in other parts of the world.
The center's researchers will focus their research on the movement of the currents and their influence on coral reefs, as well as coral ecosystems and the symbiosis system between algae and coral reefs.
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