coralwatch
‘CoralWatch aims to create public understanding of the value of reefs and actively helps save the reef through participation in scientific research and education.’
You don’t need to be a scientist to help save coral reefs. Check out how anyone can use the CoralWatch Health Chart to monitor coral around the world.
If you’ve heard of coral bleaching but aren’t sure how it really works and what it really means, take a deep dive here for an easy-to-understand visual guide.
coral bleaching
“The primary factor determining whether a coral survives a bleaching event or not is the amount of time that it is exposed to elevated temperatures under high light conditions.
In healthy coral, symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) live within the coral tissue. Algae provide the coral with food and energy as well as their characteristic brown-green colour. Stressful environmental conditions can cause the coral to expel the symbiotic algae, changing the coral colour to white.
This whitening of coral is called ‘coral bleaching’.
Sometimes corals can recover from bleaching, but if stressful conditions are severe, or persist for a long time, loss of symbiotic algae and the nutrients they provide can lead to coral death. Even when corals do recover, they are vulnerable to diseases and other stress and do not always return to full health.”
- CoralWatch.org
