Tuesday, March 5, 2013

How do Gulf corals beat the heat?


How do Gulf corals beat the heat?


 

How can coral survive in summer with high temperatures in the sea? It’s an interning topic. As a first step they sent some samples from Gulf coral to British labs to check. The coral live in symbiosis with zooxanthellae, a type of algae that lives inside the coral's tissue. The algae produce sugar which is the source of the coral’s energy it takes the sugar from the algae’s reaction. Algae have positive and negative reactions; the positive I mentioned it; for the negative reaction at high temperature algae can damage the coral by producing harmful chemicals reactions. The coral's white skeleton is made of calcium carbonate whose minerals are the same substance as human bones - and is sensitive to changes in water chemistry. Experts fear that in the future coral might disappear if they don’t get any solution for it.

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