Coral Reef
The Rainforest of The Sea
Coral can tolerate only a narrow temperature between 73-84 °F.
When the water gets too warm, the algae inside the coral releases compounds that are harmful to the coral.
This causes the coral to expel the algae, and lose its color.
This phenomenon is called coral bleaching.
An increase of just 1 °C for 4 weeks can cause coral bleaching.
When this rising temperature sustains, the algae won’t come back...
...and the coral dies.
What should we do?
Globally, we need to maintain the world’s temperature by reducing carbon emissions.
At the same time, we have to make an effort to protect our coral reefs, by restoring its habitat, recover degraded coral reefs, increase its resilience, and protect the most vulnerable against climate change.
Sources
Burke, Lauretta and Katie Wood. "Decoding Coral Reefs: Exploring Their Status, Risks and Ensuring Their Future". World Resource Institute. Last updated December 13th, 2021. https://www.wri.org/insights/decoding-coral-reefs
Chasing Coral. "The Issue". Accessed October 2nd, 2022. https://www.chasingcoral.com/the-issue/
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Long Term Temperature Monitoring". Accessed October 2nd, 2022. https://myfwc.com/research/habitat/coral/cremp/temp-monitoring/
Great Barrier Reef Foundation. “Reef Recovery 2030”. Accessed October 2nd, 2022. https://www.barrierreef.org/what-we-do/reef-recovery-2030
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Extended reconstructed sea surface temperature (ERSST.v5). April 2021. Distributed by United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-sea-surface-temperature#ref7
NOAA Fisheries. "Shallow Coral Reef Habitat". Last updated February 2nd, 2022. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/shallow-coral-reef-habitat#coral-reefs:-rainforests-of-the-sea
Orlowski, Jeff. Chasing Coral. Netflix, 2017. 1hr., 52 min. https://www.netflix.com/title/80168188?source=35
Reef Resilience Network. "Value of Reefs". Accessed October 2nd, 2022. https://reefresilience.org/value-of-reefs/
WorldFish. Coral Bleaching Data (V.1.4). September 28, 2022. Distributed by Harvard Dataverse. https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/KUVQKY
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