Coral reefs and Coral Bleaching

It has become relatively common knowledge that over the last several years the Earth’s temperature has increased in response to rising carbon dioxide levels. One consequence of this rising temperature is that the symbiotic algae living within many corals are dying, which causes coral bleaching. In 2005 the most severe bleaching event ever recorded in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean occurred (Eakin, et al., 2010). It was found that this tragedy was due to the average regional temperature being the highest it had ever been in over 150 years (Eakin, et al., 2010).This increase in temperature was a very important observation, not only because it demonstrated the effects of high temperatures on coral ecosystems, but also because it illustrated another very important point: many of the coral’s algal symbionts are not just being eliminated due to increasing temperatures, but also due to extreme environmental fluctuations (Rowan, and Knowlton, 1997).

Right now in order to salvage the remaining coral reefs scientist and researchers are going to great depths to further investigate the causes behind this environmental devastation. A collaboration of 22 different countries performed a very comprehensive documentation of coral reefs, which was based on basin-scale bleaching to date (Eakin, et al., 2010). This documentation indicated that as many as 80% of the coral reef sites studied had become bleached and over 40% had died (Eakin, et al., 2010). As a result of this study, even more evidence was compiled to preexisting experimental findings to suggest that there is a high correlation between the levels of coral bleaching and coral mortality (Jones, 2008). Therefore, we fear (along with so many others) that such sever bleaching events may cause irreversible and long-term damage to coral reefs worldwide and consequently have a negative impact any many organisms living in the same ecosystem. What do you think can be done to prevent the symbiotic algae in coral from dying out so as to protect the coral reefs from coral bleaching?


References

Eakin, C., Morgan, J. A., Heron, S. F., Smith, T. B., Gang, L., Alvarez-Filip, L., & ... de la
Guardia, E. (2010). Caribbean Corals in Crisis: Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and
Mortality in 2005. PLoS ONE, 5(11), 1-9. Available from http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=59287795&site=ehost-live&scope=site [accessed 28 March 2011]

Jones, R. J. (2008). Coral bleaching, bleaching-induced mortality, and the adaptive significance
of the bleaching response. Marine Biology, 154(1), 65-80. Available from http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31379666&site=ehost-live&scope=site [accessed 28 March 2011]



Video Reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60jof35WuAo