Coral reefs are some of the most battered life forms due to global warming. Coral bleaching and collapse of entire reef ecosystems are occurrences largely blamed on imbalances in the equilibrium of marine environments such as changes in ocean temperature, pollution, overfishing, unsustainable fishing practices, sedimentation, acidification, and oxidative stress. Today, estimates peg the destruction of all reefs on the planet at 20 percent, with additional 24 percent under threat of danger.

However, corals themselves thrive on a marine plant in the form of highly productive algae that deal with carbon, aid in photosynthesis, and produce sugars which they provide the corals for energy. Symbiotically, these algae retrieve nitrogen from the waste of the corals.

When the water warms or the coral encounters a stressful situation such as ocean acidification, the coral ‘repels’ the algae which, in turn, creates an immune response from the coral. In the process, the coral loses its sustaining lifeline.

The impending rise in ocean acidification will decrease coral calcification rates by 50 percent. The result would be more dissolved coral skeletons and collapse of more coral ecosystems.

The effects of global warming and climate change are, indeed, far reaching, affecting each and every life form on earth and disrupting natural relationships among species.

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Via The Daily Galaxy