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Do you know that Corals feel climate changes, unpredictable weather, and longer hotter summer, as much as we do? Coral bleaching is one condition that threatens coral life caused by climate changes and the rising of the sea-surface temperature. We, as divers, can do a lot to protect our coral reefs’ lives. In this blog we will talk about the causes of this alarming event, and will continue talking about how to stop it from happening in our next blog.
Coral’s Normal Environment
Corals are very sensitive with their surroundings. Anything outside their normal environment can stress them out, especially temperature. Corals normally live at a temperature range of 68 to 89 F (20 to 30 C). Other factors that can stress corals are pollution, sedimentation, disease and physical impacts.
Corals’ lives has a mutual beneficial relationship with photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae). This algae provides 80% of their nutritional requirements. But when corals do not feel comfortable with their surroundings, they will expel the zooxanthellae. Without zooxanthellae, corals will become transparent which makes their white calcium-carbonate skeleton exposed (a.k.a Coral Bleaching).
When this event goes too long, the coral will die and the skeleton will become overgrown with algae. Once this pattern has taken hold, we start to see an ecological shift from coral to algae dominated reefs that house much lower biodiversity.
Low Awareness of Bleached Coral
Global coral bleaching events are the worst, defined as mass-bleaching events in all three tropical ocean basins — the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. There have only been two global coral-bleaching events recorded in history. The first global coral bleaching event (in the year of 1997-1998), caused at least 15% of global reefs to die. In 2010, it was a little less severe. However, this event is predicted to impact corals up to 38% in 2015 to 2016, worldwide.
We were caught unprepared from the two previous bleaching events, scientists are keeping close tabs on the current event. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch program has resources to help scientists focus their efforts. They have been collecting data using satellite about the surface conditions of the sea. They can compare surface temperature of a certain week this year and the same week in the previous year, and work out the severity of the risk of coral bleaching. These prediction is open to public if they want to access and use them to manage how they use the reef. Check out how we can help recovering this Coral Bleaching event on our next post.
Do you know that Corals feel climate changes, unpredictable weather, and longer hotter summer, as much as we do? Coral bleaching is one condition that threatens coral life caused by climate changes and the rising of the sea-surface temperature. We, as divers, can do a lot to protect our coral reefs’ lives. In this blog we will talk about the causes of this alarming event, and will continue talking about how to stop it from happening in our next blog.
Coral’s Normal Environment
Corals are very sensitive with their surroundings. Anything outside their normal environment can stress them out, especially temperature. Corals normally live at a temperature range of 68 to 89 F (20 to 30 C). Other factors that can stress corals are pollution, sedimentation, disease and physical impacts.
Corals’ lives has a mutual beneficial relationship with photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae). This algae provides 80% of their nutritional requirements. But when corals do not feel comfortable with their surroundings, they will expel the zooxanthellae. Without zooxanthellae, corals will become transparent which makes their white calcium-carbonate skeleton exposed (a.k.a Coral Bleaching).
When this event goes too long, the coral will die and the skeleton will become overgrown with algae. Once this pattern has taken hold, we start to see an ecological shift from coral to algae dominated reefs that house much lower biodiversity.
Low Awareness of Bleached Coral
Global coral bleaching events are the worst, defined as mass-bleaching events in all three tropical ocean basins — the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. There have only been two global coral-bleaching events recorded in history. The first global coral bleaching event (in the year of 1997-1998), caused at least 15% of global reefs to die. In 2010, it was a little less severe. However, this event is predicted to impact corals up to 38% in 2015 to 2016, worldwide.
We were caught unprepared from the two previous bleaching events, scientists are keeping close tabs on the current event. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch program has resources to help scientists focus their efforts. They have been collecting data using satellite about the surface conditions of the sea. They can compare surface temperature of a certain week this year and the same week in the previous year, and work out the severity of the risk of coral bleaching. These prediction is open to public if they want to access and use them to manage how they use the reef. Check out how we can help recovering this Coral Bleaching event on our next post.
