HONG KONG: Warming temperatures are threatening coral reefs in the northern hemisphere, including many in U.S. waters, scientists are warning.
Unusually warm ocean temperatures are putting coral at risk across the equatorial and north Pacific and western Atlantic oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
The rise in temperatures can lead to coral bleaching, a phenomenon that sees coral release the symbiotic algae that lives within it, turning the coral pale or white.
That eliminates a major source of food and leaves the coral more vulnerable to disease, NOAA scientists say, and in extreme cases can cause entire sections of reefs to die, destroying a habitat important to fish and shellfish.
“The bleaching that started in June 2014 has been really bad for corals in the western Pacific,” says Mark Eakin, coordinator of the NOAA Coral Reef Watch. “We are worried that bleaching will spread to the western Atlantic and again into Hawaii.”
If bleaching occurs again this year, it would mark the first time it has occurred in consecutive years in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Reef loss from coral bleaching has a long-term affect, as reefs normally take decades to recover, scientists point out. Dead reefs degrade as erosion destroys the structures the corals have painstakingly built up.
The result is less protection for shorelines and fewer habitats for marine life, they say.
In addition to Hawaii, Florida also experienced warmer temperatures, which hit coral nurseries in the Florida Keys in which researchers have attempted to grow threatened species of coral for harvesting and transplanting onto local reef systems.
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