The Crisis of Coral Bleaching

The world's oceans are home to some of the most diverse and breathtaking ecosystems on the planet, and among them, coral reefs stand out as dynamic and complex underwater cities, bustling with animation. Formed by the organisms ‘coral polyps’ when they secrete calcium carbonate which go on to form the intricately rocky structures, coral reefs lie on the ocean bed, providing a home to exotic marine life like snappers and oysters. However, coral reefs are faced with a serious threat: coral bleaching.

Coral bleaching is a phenomenon that is caused due to multiple environmental reasons, and has become increasingly prominent within past years, with the size of the issues such as climate change only growing. This phenomenon occurs whenever the corals face extreme stress levels so high that it may even be lethal to them. Primarily in the last 30 years, half of the world's corals have vanished solely due to bleaching, making it a behemoth issue.

When corals face extreme stress, the algae ‘Zooxanthellae’ are caused to be expelled. Zooxanthellae are unicellular algae that reside within the polyps. They algae and coral polyps are codependent on each other and are essential to the survival of the other. The algae carry out photosynthesis that turns carbon dioxide and sunlight into food that they share with the coral polyps. The coral polyps return the favour by allowing the algae to reside in a safe environment and give them the nutrients required for the process of photosynthesis, completing the symbiotic relationship. Once the polyps are depleted of the algae, the corals grow weak and lose their vibrant tint.

The weakness of the corals makes them vulnerable to diseases and destruction in natural disasters such as tsunamis. The weakened structures are likely to crack, break or even be uprooted as a whole.

It is imperative that we conserve our coral reefs as they protect coastlines from erosion and storms by reducing the magnitude of waves hitting, regulating the Earth’s climate by acting as carbon sinks that remove carbon from the atmosphere, filtering water surrounding them through their tentacles and countless other reasons.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/search?q=coral+reefs+are+a+home+for&rlz=1C5CHFA_enIN922IN922&oq=coral+reefs+are+a+home+for&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg5MgYIAhBFGDkyBggDEEUYOdIBCDM3NDBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#:~:text=Shallow%20Coral%20Reef,habitat%2Dconservation%20%E2%80%BA%20s…

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+do+corals+release+zooxanthaellae&rlz=1C5CHFA_enIN922IN922&oq=why+do+corals+release+zooxanthaellae&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgcIAhAhGI8CMgcIAxAhGI8C0gEIODgyMWowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#:~:text=self%2Dpreservation%2C%20the%C2%A0...-,Bleaching%20Biology,https%3A//reefresilience.org%20%E2%80%BA%20stressors%20%E2%80%BA%20bleaching%2Dbiology,-This%20stress%20can

https://www.secore.org/site/corals/detail/corals-and-reefs.14.html#:~:text=As%20sessile%20organisms%2C%20corals%20filter,with%20unicellular%20algae%20called%20zooxanthellae.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/media/supp_coral02bc.html