Coral Bleaching

. Saturday, January 2, 2010
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Coral bleaching is about whitening of living coral due to a disruption of the symbiosis (two organisms whose living together benefits both) with its zooxanthellae, tiny photosynthesizing algae. These unicellular creatures reside within the coral's tissues and provide the host organism with up to 90 percent of its energy. It's the solar-derived chemical products of these algae that give the world's coral species a rainbow of vivid colors. Unfortunately, ecologically valuable coral colonies around the globe are being threatened by an ocean-dwelling bacterium known as Vibrio coralliilyticus. When the microbe becomes virulent, it can infiltrate coral and dislodge the zooxanthellae, causing the coral to lose its pigmentation. If symbiosis is long enough disrupted, the coral will die from starvation.



The scientists have shown in laboratory experiments that the virulence of V. coralliilyticus is temperature dependent, causing bleaching at temperatures above 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit). These findings have raised concerns that increasing ocean temperatures, natural seasonal changes or climate change trends possibly will lead to increased risk of widespread coral bleaching. There had been reported about 30 percent of the world’s coral reefs been severely degraded by bleaching during the past two decades.



The scientists hope in the future metabolomic studies of V. coralliilyticus are planned to better understand the complete temperature-dependent mechanism involved in its pathogenicity and have better understandings about these environments of coral reefs.

Via: sciencedaily

3 komentar:

ROSMANA APOLLA PUTERA said...

Coral bleaching=pemutihan koral karena alga di dalam koral mati kan mas???

Blogger Admin said...

dunia laut...memang pantas untuk si singgahi dan di jaga...met tahun baru sob.....

Unknown said...

jadi pengen liat alambawah laut..indah kali yaa....hmm

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