Coral Reef Limiting Factor
ByWhen humans pollute, weather that be directly, or indirectly, it creates gasses that pollute the sky, creates almost a bubble that encloses the earth and it traps the heat inside earths atmosphere and makes it really hard to get rid of, that causes climate change, which heats the earth and changes and affects ecosystems. for example the coral reef, and when heat affects coral reefs, it causes coral bleaching.
The most important limiting factor of coral bleaching is temperature. The temperature of a coral reef has to be exact, 1 degree can make the difference between vibrant, colourful, healthy coral and white, weak, bleached, half dead coral. the main living thing affected by coral bleaching, is obviously the coral. When the temperature rises, because of climate change or just because its getting hotter outside, it can make the ocean water temperature increase. Oceans absorb a high amount of climate change heat, which makes the temperature of the coral reefs much warmer and when that happens, the coral starts “bleaching”. Coral bleaching is when The corals temperature rises and it gets too hot so the coral expels all of its algae and without the algae, it doesn’t have a sunlight filter, and the heat makes the coral turn white and lose all of its colour pigmentation. When the coral loses all of its colour, it starts to become weaker, and from all the heat making it weaker too, it becomes more vulnerable to disease and decreases its growth rate, and reproductive capabilities.
When the coral becomes weaker, and loses its productive, and protective capabilities, it can no longer hide or protect other organisms in coral reefs, such as fish, eels, sharks, crabs, and shrimp. When coral cant be productive, it can no longer function for the ecosystem, and as more and more coral bleaches, the ecosystem slowly dies off. So when climate change happens, it can be devastating for coral reef ecosystems, and when the coral starts to bleach, it can hurt the whole entire ecosystem.
