This past Tuesday, Dr. Nichole Price discussed the past, present, and possible future of the world's coral reefs to a packed room in the main hall of the Boothbay Harbor Opera House.

Price's talk, "40 years of coral reefs: fragile or resilient ecosystems?" came as part of the Bigelow Laboratory Café Scientifique summer series, which extends the international Café Scientifique movement, a grassroots public science initiative, to residents of Boothbay Harbor and the surrounding area by providing free, public discussions and presentations.

Bigelow is marking 40 years of discovery at the laboratory by hosting the summer talks, and Price, a Bigelow senior researcher, continued the series August 5 by presenting a view of the coral reefs in the context of oceanographic research.

She began her presentation with a disclaimer.

"Often, coral reef scientists are referred to as doom and gloom scientists because they don't have a lot of good to say," Price said. "But I hope to be positive."

She continued by describing the structure of reefs and explaining that they are not specifically plants or animals. They are a combination of living things. They have a rocky core that is inorganic, and they also have a sort of skin that rests on top of that inorganic matter that is alive.

"Coral reefs have been referred to as a 'sea of mouths’," she continued, before saying that the organic matter that forms reefs, coral polyps, have both a mouth and a gut. Polyps live atop a hard calcium carbonate structure which they naturally secrete. In addition, among the polyps, a whole host of organisms exist in the reef. Within one cubic foot of reef, she said, observers can find up to 600 different animals and plants living among one another.

"These are truly diverse ecosystems," she said.

Following her introduction, Price provided a brief history about research that began in the 1970s and started with scientists taking above-water photos while they stood on reef floors. Technological advancements made it possible, over the following 40 years, for scientists to survey entire swaths of oceans with mechanical diving equipment and high-definition cameras.

The advanced technology has led to scientists better understand the changing nature of the ocean and the existence of reefs themselves. With rising ocean temperatures and pollution has come increased pH levels. This has allowed algae to form in greater quantities and take over sections of ocean where coral once held sway. Visitors to many coral reefs will find them no longer blooming with coral; instead, they will find them covered in algae.

"Understanding how all these organisms interact is very complex," Price said, "and has just developed recently."

Price also explained that overfishing in areas where coral reefs are present is causing a decrease in the number and size of fish that fishermen are catching. Considering the ecosystem as a whole, the number of herbivores in the ocean is decreasing, and that is also having a negative impact on the ability for coral reefs to survive.

"The story is not generally a happy one," she said. However, ocean scientists are, more than ever, studying the impact of human actions on coral reefs and attempting to reverse the tide of misfortune.

Price asked the audience: "Is there any hope that the reefs will be resilient?"

In research that took place in the 2000s, Price pointed out, coral reefs along the Phoenix Islands in the Central Pacific showed that they were actively growing. The Phoenix Islands are part of the Phoenix Island Protected Area — one of the largest marine conservation efforts in existence. In addition, the Pacific Island National Monument, a separate collection of Pacific Islands protected by U.S. jurisdiction, protects additional territory where coral and other species can thrive.

Price said she was happy to support the recent expansion of the National Monument area and recently signed a letter sent to President Barack Obama that described her advocacy. She said protection of these areas is important to the preservation of species. The coral, though, is adapting well on its own.

Near the end of her talk, Price showed the audience a graphic of the world locations where coral reef was found to be growing. To compensate for rising temperatures, the coral is spreading toward the poles.

"As you move away from the equator," she said, "coral recruits have grown (increasingly) since the 2000s."

She concluded with a joke she said her husband made about possibly seeing some coral off the coast of Maine by the time he retires.

His joke, however exaggerated, marks the reality that coral is finding a way to survive and that coral scientists' efforts may be having a positive impact on the future of the planet.