Coral Reef Bleaching- Underwater ecosystems in danger.

Coral Reef Bleaching

When scuba diving, you might have seen ghostly corals near the shoreline, this is mostly because the temperature of the waters in that area have risen. There are other factors that may play a role, but global climate change is the biggest contributing factor. Because of rise in temperature, the sudden change makes the corals stressed. When stressed the corals's algae leave them which urns then white. There is a vast amount of algae that are helping the coral survive. They help the corals produce food and photosynthesize. This change doesn't mean the corals are dead, but are stressed and on the verge of death. "In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event." Corals have a limited range of temperatures they can live in. With global warming upon us, this exceedingly makes it harder for corals to survive since water temperatures are rising. 

So why are coral reefs important? 

Coral reefs house 25% of all marine life. Without corals, those marine life wouldn't have a house to protect them against predators. This decrease of housing could result in devastating population instability. Besides the ecosystem being in jeopardy,  it affects human jobs since the corals help support the fishing industry.