Hi everyone! Today I wanted to talk a little bit about coral bleaching. Corals are marine invertebrates that form compact colonies of individual polyps. They are typically found in coral reefs, which are large underwater ecosystems formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate skeletons. Not only are coral reefs one of the world’s largest pools of biodiversity, they also protect coastlines and provide jobs for local communities. Coral reefs are being threatened by environmental signal, which are changes in the environment that lead to corals displaying signs of thermal stress. As water temperatures rise due to climate change, mass coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent. Coral bleaching happens when the water temperature is too high, and the coral stresses out and expels the algae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn white. Scientists know a lot about tropical corals and their relationship with their endosymbionts, but scientists have yet to know more about temperate corals and their endosymbionts.
As climate change continues to devastate reef communities around the globe, the pressure to understand how tropical and temperate corals may differ in resilience increases. To figure this out, data I have gathered data in the form of images of both tropical and temperate coral. To collect further data, ImageJ, an image analysis software, was used to extract mean values of red, blue, and green in the coral to decipher the change in color of the corals over time; this is known as the color score of the corals. This will allow for a comparison between the change in color, which will be used to determine if there is a difference in the resilience of the temperate and tropical corals. This research can be used to better understand how these corals will be affected by global warming as well as to help frame policy and management strategies.
This research is a part of a science research project I am doing in school! Recently I have been taking care of corals in my science research classroom and I have been experimenting on them to discover the difference between the thermal resistance of tropical coral vs. temperate corals. There are many organizations that specialize in saving coral. Some of these that I recommend for donations include 4OCEAN, Ocean Conservancy, and The Coral Reef Alliance.
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