Somewhere on Lake Erie, leaning over the rail of a research vessel in a November snowstorm and trying not to be sick, John Burt decided he’d rather work in warmer waters.



“I realized I had a real fondness for the tropics,” the marine biologist recalls, laughing over the fateful experience from back when he was earning his master’s degree in freshwater biology.



Now, as head of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Marine Biology Lab, Burt conducts his research in some of the warmest waters on record—the Arabian Gulf, also known as the Persian Gulf. And, as the world contemplates rising sea temperatures caused by climate change, his work there has wide-ranging implications.

In June, a team led by Ed Smith, a research scientist in Burt’s lab, published a study comparing the genetic structure of coral and their algae partners, or symbionts, in the Arabian Gulf and the neighboring Gulf of Oman. Their goal? To try to understand how coral in the Arabian Gulf have adapted to temperatures that can top 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit), about 5 degrees hotter than the average temperatures in the Gulf of Oman. The water off Miami Beach in August, for comparison, maxes out at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The prospect of investigating the thermal tolerance of Gulf corals brought me to NYUAD,” says Smith. “Undertaking research which could help further our understanding of how corals may respond to climate change is exciting, and this paper was an important step in our wider study into what makes these corals so special.”



Coral reefs have been on the decline in recent years, in part because of “bleaching”—a breakdown in the relationship between coral and algae, which depend on each other for nutrients. According to Smith’s study, bleaching has been documented with an increase in temperature of only 1 or 2 degrees Celsius.

But tropical waters are expected to warm by as much as 4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.



The balance between coral and algae is “incredibly important,” says Burt, an associate professor of biology who was one of the first faculty members to join NYU Abu Dhabi.