User talk:Caitlincook09/sandbox

Coral bleaching in the Red Sea is more common in the northern section of the reefs, the southern part of the reef has been plagued by coral eating starfish, dynamite fishing and human impacts on the environment[1]. In 1988 there was a massive bleaching event that affected the reefs in Saudi Arabia and in Sudan, the southern reefs were more resilient and affected them very little[1]. Previously it was thought that the North suffers more from coral bleaching but they show a fast turnover of coral and the southern reef was thought to not suffer from bleaching as harshly, they show more consistency[1]. However, new research shows where the south reef should be bigger and healthier than the north it was not[1]. This is believed to be because of major disturbances in recent history from bleaching events, and coral eating starfish[1]. In 2010, coral bleaching occurred in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, where the temperature rose 10 to 11 degrees[2]. Certain taxa experienced 80% to 100% of their colonies bleaching, while some showed on average 20% of that taxa bleaching[2].

The Samoan reefs have been exposed to heat that is normally lethal to coral in other areas[3]. There low tide happens at the hottest part of the day, however, they survive[3]. They could be the key to figuring out how to keep coral alive[3]. They are only exposed to those high temperatures for about 4 hours a day, and they have time to recover[3]. There is researching happening on whether we can expose coral to heat in the same way these corals are and essentially train them to withstand heat for longer and longer periods of time[3].

Caitlincook09 (talk) 19:40, 29 November 2017 (UTC)Bergmanucsd