ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
Coral Bleaching: A Catastrophic Peril

“Once there were islands all a-sprout with palms: and corals reefs and sands as white as milk. What is there now but a vast shambles of the heart? Filth, squalor and a world of little men.” Lines uttered by Mervyn Peake, a British novelist and poet, words of wisdom that connects with this disastrous peril our environment’s agonizing with.
Nearly 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs are classified as threatened. Most recently a new threat has been observed. Most stony corals have adapted to the very stable temperatures of the tropics and are extremely sensitive to temperature change. When stressed by unusually high temperatures, stony corals, as well as many soft corals expel or lose their color and turn a bright white. This phenomenon is known as coral bleaching.
Since 1990’s an unprecedented number of warm years have led to mass bleaching events where all corals on a reef have bleached and many have died. Scientists predict that global warming in coming decades will further raise temperature to levels that may threaten coral reefs throughout the world.
White sections on stag horn coral in the Caribbean Sea are an example of coral bleaching. It is also one of the greatest threats of Great Barrier Reef , one of the world’s most important areas of marine wilderness. Major coral bleaching incidents on this in 1998 and 2002 led to widespread death of corals in some areas.
Corals bleach as a reaction to sharp changes in salinity and also in response to heavy ultraviolet radiation, despite possessing several kinds of natural sun blocking compounds that are being studied for human use. However, most bleaching has been linked to abnormally high local ocean temperature s such as those spawned by El Niño.
Scientists believe coral bleaching occurs when ocean water becomes too warm, causing stress on the zooxanthellae algae that live inside coral animals and provide them with food in a symbiotic relationship. As a result of this stress response, the relationship between the corals and the zooxanthellae breaks down; the corals lose their color and become white. The bleached corals are still alive but they are weakened. If excessively warm water conditions continue for too long, the bleached corals die.
Given time, bleached corals can regain their color and their potential for growth and reproduction. Then again, they may succumb if bleaching episodes are prolonged or recur too often, or if the colonies are trying in the meantime to cope with heavy metals, pesticide residues, or algae stimulated by nutrients flushed from coastal rivers and farms. Wherever corals are weakened by these factors, the possibility of disease looms larger.
Coral reefs may be warning us to pay closer attention as they suffer from such catastrophic peril. Because through unleashing the power of implementing conservation efforts, collaborating on education, researching reef-issues and enforcing regulations with proper awareness, we can regain the magnificence of the corals our ancestors first saw. #
By: Cheivy Soliman
Nearly 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs are classified as threatened. Most recently a new threat has been observed. Most stony corals have adapted to the very stable temperatures of the tropics and are extremely sensitive to temperature change. When stressed by unusually high temperatures, stony corals, as well as many soft corals expel or lose their color and turn a bright white. This phenomenon is known as coral bleaching.
Since 1990’s an unprecedented number of warm years have led to mass bleaching events where all corals on a reef have bleached and many have died. Scientists predict that global warming in coming decades will further raise temperature to levels that may threaten coral reefs throughout the world.
White sections on stag horn coral in the Caribbean Sea are an example of coral bleaching. It is also one of the greatest threats of Great Barrier Reef , one of the world’s most important areas of marine wilderness. Major coral bleaching incidents on this in 1998 and 2002 led to widespread death of corals in some areas.
Corals bleach as a reaction to sharp changes in salinity and also in response to heavy ultraviolet radiation, despite possessing several kinds of natural sun blocking compounds that are being studied for human use. However, most bleaching has been linked to abnormally high local ocean temperature s such as those spawned by El Niño.
Scientists believe coral bleaching occurs when ocean water becomes too warm, causing stress on the zooxanthellae algae that live inside coral animals and provide them with food in a symbiotic relationship. As a result of this stress response, the relationship between the corals and the zooxanthellae breaks down; the corals lose their color and become white. The bleached corals are still alive but they are weakened. If excessively warm water conditions continue for too long, the bleached corals die.
Given time, bleached corals can regain their color and their potential for growth and reproduction. Then again, they may succumb if bleaching episodes are prolonged or recur too often, or if the colonies are trying in the meantime to cope with heavy metals, pesticide residues, or algae stimulated by nutrients flushed from coastal rivers and farms. Wherever corals are weakened by these factors, the possibility of disease looms larger.
Coral reefs may be warning us to pay closer attention as they suffer from such catastrophic peril. Because through unleashing the power of implementing conservation efforts, collaborating on education, researching reef-issues and enforcing regulations with proper awareness, we can regain the magnificence of the corals our ancestors first saw. #
By: Cheivy Soliman
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