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Orange coral polyps

CLIMATE
CONNECTION


Orange coral polyps feed at night by extending their tentacles to trap food floating past.


Coral animals, like many marine creatures, are highly sensitive to changes in their environment.

 



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DEATH BY BLEACHING

Global warming is apparent in the worldwide proliferation of coral bleaching. Corals grow in the warm waters, but many of them are near the limits of their tolerance for high temperatures. Bleaching is a breakdown of a complex biological system that coral s have evolved in order to survive. Each coral formation is a colony of hundreds or thousands of tiny organisms (or polyps), that jointly build a skeleton that forms the reef. The outside layer of each coral polyp is inhabited by tiny one - celled plants scientists call zooxanthellae. It is these organisms that give the coral its bright colors, and when expelled due to warmer water or some other stress, coral appears bleached. Without zooxanthellae, the coral cannot survive for long.


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