Continued Research About Coral Reef Bleaching

·     Coral reefs are found in circumtropical shallow tropical waters.

·     Corals live in very nutrient poor waters and have certain zones of

tolerance to water temperature,salinity, UV radiation, opacity, and

nutrient quantities.

·    Coral reef bleaching occurs when the densities of zooxanthellae decline and/or the

concentration of photosynthetic pigments within the zooxanthellae fall.

·     Coral reefs that suffer from bleaching commonly lose 60-90% of their zooxanthellae and each zooxanthella may lose 50-80% of its photosynthetic pigments.

·     Ecological Causes of Coral Bleaching

o   Temperature

o   Solar Irradiance

o   Subaerial Exposure

o   Sedimentation

o   Fresh Water Dilution

o   Inorganic Nutrients

o   Xenobiotics- a chemical which is found in an organism that is not normally produced or expected to be present in it.

o   Epizootics- a disease that appears as new cases in a certain animal population, during a given time, at a rate that greatly exceeds what is "expected."


Buchheim, J. (2000).http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm. Retrieved from http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm