In Hot Water: Global Warming Takes a Toll on Coral Reefs
نویسنده
چکیده
I n the summer of 2005, while Atlantic hurricanes battered coastlines from Cuba to Mexico, the Eastern Caribbean baked under a relentless sun with barely a breeze to cool the air. Tourists and locals alike wilted in the heat, and below the sea, marine life and corals in particular suffered as well. The windless calm settled in just as a buildup of unusually warm water began accumulating in the region. Ordinarily, easterly trade winds would have churned the sea, helping it to cool. But thanks to an unprecedented heat wave beginning in May—the result of a confluence of factors related to climate change, scientists say—water temperatures in the Eastern Caribbean climbed and stayed high for months, reaching levels that by September would be warmer than any recorded in 150 years. The heat disturbed a symbiotic partnership that coral animals normally maintain with a type of algae called zoo-xanthellae. Zooxanthellae supply corals with essential nutrients produced by photosynthesis, particularly carbon, in return for
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