Coral Line by: Chayatach Pasawongse
Coral Type: Branching
Coral species: Acropora sp.
Message: Save the Coral!
Note: We can see the effects of coral bleaching on this line, as the corals appear more pale in the 3 month photograph than when they were first planted. This years’ El Nino is causing a rise in sea surface temperature which in turn causes the corals to eject their colourful symbiotic algae. Losing the algal cells means a loss of colour, as well as a loss of an important source of energy. You can see from the 6 month photograph that the colour has returned to the corals, showing that these fragments have recovered. Unfortunately the warming did cause a lot of fragments on this line to die though, hence the big drop in % of fragments alive on the graph. The remaining fragments are growing well, and we hope these bleach resistant colonies will make our reef more resilient in the future!
