![]() ![]() Some have already chosen to impose a temporary voluntary moratorium on outplanting activities, as representatives for I.CARE, CRF and Reef Renewal USA confirmed. With more than a dozen organizations and agencies heavily involved in reef restoration and protection via coral outplanting throughout the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), the stressful temperatures are, in some cases, challenging practitioners to strike a balance between survivorship and outplanting quotas that form the basis for critical grant funding. ![]() Speaking with the Keys Weekly on July 18, he called the temperature stress and resulting bleaching “absolutely one of the single most challenging threats that there are to the continued survival of reefs around the world.” Mote president and CEO Michael Crosby went a step further. “Hurricane Ian came at the end of September and knocked the temperatures down, and bleaching subsided.” “Last year we started to see paling and some partial bleaching, but it wasn’t until September,” she said. With bleaching commonly seen in Keys coral species when water temperatures reach a consistent 30.5 degrees Celsius (roughly 87 degrees Fahrenheit), some degree of the phenomenon has become relatively common, in limited quantities, during the sweltering late-summer months. Though bleached corals may survive for short periods of days or a few weeks without re-uptake of the algal cells, without the photosynthetic byproducts that provide the corals with the majority of their energy, they largely lose their ability to feed themselves and protect against other stressors, significantly upping their mortality if stressors continue over a prolonged period. Sun-baked Keys residents suffering through “feels-like” temperatures well north of 100 degrees, with nearshore waters that feel more like jacuzzis, aren’t the only ones issuing a cry for help – the Keys’ coral reefs aren’t far behind.Ĭoral bleaching is a phenomenon that occurs when polyps under stress from a variety of factors, including heat, expel the algal cells (zooxanthellae) that give them their color and provide energy for the coral in a symbiotic relationship. ![]()
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