![]() | ||||||
![]() |
![]() | |||||
![]() |
![]() |
. | ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
.
Sick coral Coral -- the calcifying animal that forms coral reefs -- lives in a symbiosis with algae. Coral provides the housing, and algae uses photosynthesis to put food on the table. This age-
Coral reefs are home to staggering marine diversity -- where fish, plants, and other organisms mingle in a marine equivalent of a tropical rain forest. The phantasmagoria of life makes reefs a magnet for scuba divers. |
![]() |
![]() |
White pox disease © 1997, Craig Quirolo, REEF RELIEF.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() With global temperatures going up, bleaching is making for a bleak picture below the surface. Now comes a slew of new coral diseases with primitive names like black band, white pox, and white plague. Studies within the past two years have found extensive damage -- "a disturbing new kind of thing that we're unprepared to understand," Porter says. In the early 1970s, between two and four coral species were getting sick in the Keys; today's casualty toll includes 14 species. "Almost all these diseases are new to science, have never been seen or described before," Porter says. "They could be viral, bacterial, fungal, or protozoan, we simply don't know. Our level of ignorance is quite frightening."
Clinic for coral
At this point, marine biologists are watching and waiting nervously to see if the recent rapid decline continues. Reefs, after all, are natural breakwaters that prevent shore erosion and house innumerable rare species. If they go, downstream ecological consequences are certain.
"If this continues over the next two years, there will be very serious consequences for the Florida Keys," says Porter.
We hooked oceans of reading in our bibliography. |
![]() |
![]() |
.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
.
There are 1 2 3 4 5 pages in this feature. Bibliography | Credits | Feedback | Search ©1999, University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. |