Coral Bleaching - Trey Walton

 https://www.marineconservation.org.au/coral-bleaching/

I know coral bleaching is an event that happens world wide to the coral reefs in our oceans. I know its bad for the health of the coral reefs and I also know that climate change has a big role in the appearance of bleached corals.  But what exactly is it?  What actually happens that makes the corals change color to a ghostly white?  

Corals actually get their color from a colorful marine algae that live on the skin of the coral.  They can conduct photosynthesis that provides energy to the coral.  Without the algae the corals can only feed themselves for so long until they starve to death.  

Something I actually didn't know is a lot of coral reefs go through cycles of bleaching.  As temperature raised and the algae starts to die out, the reefs change from their colorful from to their bleached out form.  They are not dead yet however.   The coral can't stay like this.  It can only survive a certain period of time until dead skeleton covers the coral and effectively kills it off.  

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