Consider the following passage:
For decades, marine ecologists maintained that coral bleaching was a uniformly catastrophic event resulting from the irreversible expulsion of endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) under thermal stress. However, recent empirical research has given rise to the Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis (ABH), which posits that bleaching allows host corals to recombine with alternative, thermo-tolerant algal clades, thereby enhancing heat resilience.
Opponents of ABH contend that this mechanism cannot serve as an effective long-term evolutionary adaptation. They observe that corals hosting thermo-tolerant Clade D zooxanthellae exhibit significantly reduced calcification rates and impaired reproductive output compared to those dominated by sensitive Clade C algae. Consequently, critics argue that any temporary thermal tolerance is offset by severe fitness costs that undermine reef structure over time.
Nevertheless, proponents of ABH have effectively rebutted this objection by demonstrating that the observed metabolic trade-off is both transient and context-dependent. Longitudinal surveys reveal that following acute thermal anomalies, corals temporarily retaining Clade D algae experience dramatically lower mortality rates than non-bleached controls. More importantly, as ambient seawater temperatures return to seasonal baselines, corals systematically reshuffle their symbiont populations, re-establishing dominance of high-growth Clade C algae. Thus, the short-term calcification penalty functions not as an evolutionary dead end, but as a crucial survival strategy that preserves host viability until optimal environmental conditions recur.
Based on the passage above, evaluate whether the following statement is True or False:
The proponents neutralize the critics' counterargument by establishing that the growth penalty incurred by hosting Clade D algae is temporary rather than persistent.
Answer: Answer