Coral Bleaching Research Paper

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What is Coral Reef Bleaching?
Coral reef bleaching refers to the phenomenon in which corals become so stressed by changes in conditions that they expel the symbiotic algae living within their tissues (Glynn, 1996). At the moment that corals encounter stressors (which are both natural and anthropogenic), they react by rejecting the zooxanthellae algae that provide nearly 90% of its energy requirements (Glynn, 1996). When this takes place there are several repercussions that can occur:
• Turning white (Glynn, 1996)
• Becoming more susceptible to diseases/illnesses (Glynn, 1996)
• Loss of life (Glynn, 1996) Who is Affected?
When corals bleach they not only put themselves in danger as they become highly breakable, countless species relying on the coral reef for safekeeping no longer have a durable dwelling area once the algae is gone (Marshall, & Schuttenberg, 2006). Additionally, humans are also negatively impacted by coral bleaching because the substantial amount of economic benefits that they provide:
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Coral reef bleaching is a remarkably important issue because there are innumerable stressors that humans are consistently inflicting upon coral reefs:
• Emitting too much CO2 into the atmosphere (Richardson, & Thornton, 2011)
• Generating immoderate amounts of toxic pollution (Richardson, & Thornton, 2011)
• Not supporting marine protected areas where a government has placed restrictions on human activity (Richardson, & Thornton, 2011) which are compelling corals to respond by bleaching (Richardson, & Thornton, 2011). Over the long term, these stressors can result in mass coral bleaching events at a regional or global scale (Huppert, & Stone,

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