Coral Bleaching – Why it happens? Diving Maluku

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Maluku Diving

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Maluku, Ambon, Indonesia
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I'm a Fish!
Source: Diving Maluku Blogs
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-bleaching-full.jpg


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.
 
SAN DIEGO, California -- The decline of Caribbean coral reefs has been linked to the recent effects of human-induced climate change. However, new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests an even earlier cause. The bad news humans are still to blame. The good news relatively simple policy changes can hinder further coral reef decline. The more we learn the more we find out we don't know!

Employing a novel excavation technique to reconstruct the timeline of historical change in coral reefs located on the Caribbean side of Panama, a team of scientists led by Scripps alumna Katie Cramer and current Scripps Professor of Oceanography and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Emeritus Staff Scientist Jeremy Jackson has determined that damage to coral reefs from land clearing and overfishing pre-dates damage caused by anthropogenic climate change by at least decades. .............................

http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=15621090743
 
It still necessitates changing human behavior at the societal level, and I am not optimistic.
Tend to agree. Look forward to your next blog about what divers can do. Am interested since my opinion is that it is probably very little, as individuals or even something every diver would now do. If the idea is to exert pressure on the big causes of bleaching that may help.
 
Most on SB probably know most of the stuff in that link.
 
Maybe not travel around the world for 2 weeks of diving is what divers could do... :confused:
 
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I have often said the world needs fewer divers. We are the problem not the solution.
 
Coral bleaching has nothing to do with divers. Is a quick increase of decrease of the water temp from the optimal temp. You can say when coral is bleached we can can take the stress element away, like divers, so when the temp comes back to the optimal temp, there are less stress factors.
But we have find the causes why the water temp increase and decrease in a rapid way. There are many theories of that.
 
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