A Discussion on the Consequences of Coral Bleaching on Sessile Organisms

This publication discusses the consequences coral bleaching will have on sessile organisms. Sessile organisms like algae and coral are important for the complex makeup of the coral reefs and capture light and utilize gas to maintain primary production. The reefs are also the home of these sessile organisms as well. Coral bleaching will have major impacts on these organisms and in turn will have affect the reef biodiversity, growth and productivity. The publication dives into specific taxa that are affected as well as tables that show which organisms have immediate responses to the bleaching.

This source has an abundant of information and graphs that I can help incorporate into my research and it ties in well with my objective of explaining specifically which organisms are impacted by the bleaching of the coral reefs.

This paper explains the how coral is assembled and comprised of microorganisms which is known as a holobiont. They discuss how organisms sich as bacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi are inside the tissues of the coral and the surface.

They collected finger coral (Montipora digitata) on the coasts of Okinawa, Japan to isolate the bacteria. This study was done to see how these microorganisms affected the corals health. They concluded that the finger coral had 78 different types of bacteria, 13 of which were antagonistic to the Coral. While this paper is not directly related to coral bleaching, it helps me incorporate the other organisms that interact and affect the coral. I can use this experiment to discuss the roles microorganisms play in the life of coral.

This book contains a great deal of information regarding the topic of coral conservation. I haven't been able to fully dig into the book but the outline of their topics can help further explain the impacts different human actions can cause on coral reefs. Fishing, pollution and climate change are the main contents they dive into. They explain how each of these impacts affect the coral reefs. I will be able to incorporate a lot of this information in my research when I touch on different impacts of coral bleaching specifically man made ones.

This news piece touches on the overall problem of coral bleaching and explaining how bad it has become. The author specifically mentions the Great Barrier Reef and the bleaching it has undergone. It is also explained how some lightly bleached coral will be able to regain their color, while other corals that are white will eventually die. The news piece goes on to explain another time where the bleaching became a real problem and its impacts. Although it is a magazine piece and not exactly the best source it gives good background on the issue with the Great Barrier Reef and explains how the bleaching will affect the coral. It also gives information on how this issue has happened before.

This paper explains how heat can be a major factor in the bleaching of coral. In the summer of 2016 there was extensive bleaching in the coral reefs of Japan. 90% of the Sekisei reef was subject to bleaching. This event occurred on a global scale and beginning at the Mariana Islands and extending to the Great Barrier Reef. The NOAA studied this and concluded that the uptick in heat is what caused the problem. This paper will help my research because I can use heat as another explanation as to why the coral reefs in the ocean are being bleached. Global warming was brought up in the paper which can also be a topic I touch upon.

This source explains how coral reefs have been threatened by ocean acidification and climate change. They have projected that all tropical reefs will eventually die out due to severe bleaching from thermal stress. 90% of all reef locations are expected to experience severe bleaching by 2055. In the experiment they conducted they used climate models to project years in which severe coral bleaching would occur. The results showed that coral in the Gilbert Islands would be subject to severe bleaching by 2023. The Great Barrier Reef would experience it by 2082. It was also concluded that higher latitudes for reefs would be able to persist longer. This paper will help my research greatly since it includes a specific experiment used to find out the expected year in which these corals will experience severe bleaching. It will also help me since I can use the correlation of latitudes and coral bleaching as a chart or table for my paper.