The global temperatures have reached their highest level in recent history. Ocean temperatures are also at record highs. Global warming is expected to continue at an alarming pace and ocean temperatures set to increase, scientists are predicting that coral bleaching will become a major problem. When water temperature is too high, coral bleaching can occur.
This is caused by the expulsion of or loss of pigmentation. Corals become completely white when this happens. The NOAA National Ocean Service states that corals are not considered dead if they become bleached.
Although corals are able to survive bleaching events, they face greater stress and mortality. Coral bleaching is a serious threat to great reef systems in tropical oceans. The health of coral reefs is vital for sustainable biological diversity. They provide shelter and food for many small marine and fish species.
Mark Eakin (coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch) says that we will continue to observe a pattern in high thermal stress. It follows the same kind of time sequence and movement as 1998 major events. In a Mashable interview, Mark Eakin, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch program told Mashable that this same pattern will continue to occur.
The bleaching threshold of corals decreases as the ocean gets more acidic. More carbon dioxide also makes them more vulnerable to thermal stress. Eakin stated that it takes less to trigger the chain of bleaching as the increase in ocean thermal content. Corals that have been bleached.
Already, coral bleaching is occurring in Guam and Hawaii as well as Tuvalu, Hawaii, Tuvalu, Florida. Scientists are warning about massive bleaching in Australia’s Pacific Islands. The bleaching episode was caused by the El Nino, which saw ocean temperatures rise to . The event caused the death of around 15% of corals worldwide. However, many have yet to recover completely. Ove Hoegh–Guldberg is a professor of marine biology at the University of Queensland. He also spoke out as a coral reef expert.