Coral Reefs vs.

Climate Change

Group members: Shelby, Sana, Mariam, and Nchuo

Introduction
Coral Bleaching is the process in which coral ‘bleaches’ and appears white and can be caused by
many external stimuli, including changes in temperature, light exposure, or access to nutrients.
Essentially, the polyps, or stalk-like tissue, expel the algae that live under them and cause the
white or bleached appearance (Cho 2011). The main cause of coral bleaching is climate change,
as temperature changes as small as 2°F can cause coral to expel the algae; thus, in light of the
planet’s global climate crisis, global coral bleaching also becomes a widespread issue (NOAA
2021). Since coral reefs cover only .2% of the ocean yet are home to 25% of marine life, several
species will be affected by bleached coral. Coral reefs are also the core of many other ecosystems
(NOAA 2019). Thus, this is integral and relevant research in order to understand the state of a
large portion of marine life. The purpose of this research was to develop a more concrete
understanding of the severity of global coral bleaching over the past two to three decades by
analyzing coral bleaching data from three different countries. This, in turn, will be a good
window into viewing the status of marine life in many of our oceans. We will look at data of
coral bleaching from Belize, Torres Strait/Great Barrier Reef, and Florida Keys to get a
widespread understanding of the progression of coral bleaching severity from the late 20th
century to the present day. We hypothesize that the trends in the data we analyze will show an
increase in the severity of global coral bleaching because there is an established link between
climate change and coral bleaching, and our global climate has gotten progressively warmer
throughout the years.
Intro Sources:

Methods
This data was collected from a large data spreadsheet obtained through the Reefbase database
(https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Bleaching_database_V1_0_xlsx/4743778). This database
compiles coral reef information from many different, smaller organizations in order to make
these different statistics a cohesive collection of numbers to analyze. For the first analysis, we
compiled global data and graphed global coral bleaching severity from 1960-2010. For the
second analysis we looked specifically at bleaching severity data from the Torres Strait and Great
Barrier Reef from 1980-2003. Finally, for the third analysis we looked specifically at coral
bleaching severity data in Florida from 2005-2006. For each of these data sets, the particular data
was put into a spreadsheet and graphed, the trend was analyzed statistically with a linear
regression for each scenario.
Results and Discussion

Figure 1. Global coral bleaching severity from 1960-2010. (Severity code: -1=no data, 0-3 low
to high bleaching severity).
Figure 2. Coral bleaching severity in the Torres Strait & Great Barrier Reef from 1980-2003
(Severity code: 0-3 low to high bleaching severity).

Figure 3. Coral bleaching severity in Florida from 2005-2006.

From: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Bleaching_database_V1_0_xlsx/4743778

It is evident from Figure one that after graphing the cumulative data in the database for the
severity of coral bleaching from 1960 to 2010, global coral bleaching severity has steadily
increased. The linear trend reflects a continuation of this phenomenon if nothing else changes in
terms of climate change prevention. Furthermore, in the focused case studies we analyzed we
saw these same trends repeat on a smaller scale. In Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef (graphed
in figure two), the data reflects this same trend of increased bleaching severity over a two decade
period. In Florida, we analyzed a much smaller time window; however, even over a single year it
is evident (from figure three) that the trend indicates an increased bleaching severity. This
analysis of the trends globally and in two local scenarios supports our hypothesis. Due to the
established link between increased temperatures and the severity of global coral bleaching, these
conclusions strongly suggest a direct linkage between climate change and coral bleaching. Thus,
this is highly impactful data to visualize one of the many effects of our changing climate. The
significance of studying coral reefs in a climate change model is that they are the core of many
other ecosystems and are home to 25% of marine life (NOAA 2019). In fact, coral is also referred
to as the “rainforest of the ocean” because it can be a habitat to up to 1,500 different types of fish
(Asia 2018). Thus, the continuously increased severity of coral bleaching affects the health of the
organisms that rely on coral ecosystems and in turn affects the surrounding environment and the
organisms that rely on these smaller species for food. The solution to this involves the mitigation
of climate change; for instance, reduction in emissions, renewable energy, and energy waste.
Additionally, besides climate change control, human activity in general can cause harm to coral
reefs such as pesticides and wastewater. Thus, other human activities can be eliminated and
infrastructure implemented in order preserve the health of our coral reefs so that the positive
linear trend we observed can one day regress into a decline in coral deaths and climate change.

Sources
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https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4743778.v1

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March 31, 2022, from

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/marine-life/coral-reef-ecosystems

Global Threats to Coral Reefs. (n.d.). Coral Reef Alliance. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from

https://coral.org/en/coral-reefs-101/global-threats/

Importance of corals and their threats. (n.d.). Coral Guardian. Retrieved March 31, 2022,

from https://www.coralguardian.org/en/coral-reefs/
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https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2011/06/13/losing-our-coral-reefs/

US Department of Commerce, N. O. and A. A. (n.d.). What is coral bleaching? Retrieved

March 31, 2022, from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html

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cts-and-solutions-of-coral-bleaching