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PHOTO BY ALAMY
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Higher water temperature, brought about by increased carbon dioxide in atmosphere have adverse impact on coral reefs. Warmer temperature stress corals, causing zooxanthella to die or be expelled from the corals. This causes corals to lose their colour and turn white as the algae gives the coral its colour. Bleached corals are unhealthy and weak - less able to fight against diseases (Teachoceanscience, 2014).
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier posts, increase in carbon dioxide results to ocean acidification which leads to shells dissolving in the more acidic water. Likewise for corals, they are unable to absorb the calcium carbonate needed for their skeleton, and in the acidic water, the skeleton which supports coral reefs will dissolve.
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Healthy corals
PHOTO BY HALL-SPENCER ET AL. 2008
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Unhealthy corals with their skeleton structure partially destroyed
PHOTO BY HALL-SPENCER ET AL. 2008
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References:
Teachoceanscience.(2014) How does climate change affect coral reefs. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.teachoceanscience.net/teaching_resources/education_modules/coral_reefs_and_climate_change/how_does_climate_change_affect_coral_reefs/. [Accessed 25 October 14].
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