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Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.

Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.
Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.
Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.
Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.
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294090
DeCarlo, Thomas
Bleaching evident on coral in the South China Sea.
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07/26/2015
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Image Of the Day caption:
Corals on Dongsha Atoll, a remote coral reef ecosystem in the northern South China Sea, were severely damaged in June 2015 when a 2°C rise in ocean temperature was amplified to 6°C on the reef by unusually calm weather. The study, published in Scientific Reports and led by Tom DeCarlo, former MIT-WHOI Joint Program student in WHOI scientist Anne Cohen's lab, highlights the danger to shallow water reefs of even moderate levels of warming. In response to the hike in temperature, this Porites colony ejected its algal symbionts, causing the coral polyps to turn white. Without their symbionts, the polyps starve and eventually die. Some parts of this coral are already dead and covered with turf algae.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 53, No. 1, pg. 23:
From a boat from the Dongsha Atoll Research Station, graduate student Tom DeCarlo dives to retrieve a sensor that recorded data on ocean conditions during a widespread coral bleaching event off Dongsha Atoll in the South China Sea. When seawater temperatures rise, the colorful symbiotic algae that live in corals depart, revealing corals' underlying white skeletons. The bleached corals below are partially dead, as indicated by the tufts of green algae that quickly overgrow dead corals.
Caption from WHOI News Release dated 03/23/2017:
Porites corals bleached white and partially dead as indicated by the green algal turfs that quickly overgrow the dead coral polyps.
Photo by Tom DeCarlo
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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