Article by: Ellie Casement Stark white corals dotting a colorful reef scene are unfortunately common images in today’s news and media. However, the dusky lighting from photos of a recent bleaching event reveal its unexpected location – the twilight zone.  A paper by Clara Diaz and colleagues from University of Plymouth, which was published in October 2023, describes a bleaching event that occurred in the Chagos Archipelago in 2019. The study found evidence of bleaching on mesophotic reefs between 60-90 m, making it the deepest bleaching event ever reported.   Background What is ..read more

Written by Jasmine Haskell and edited by Danielle Moloney Fig. 1 Sargassum piles up in the coast of Cancun, Mexico. Taken from: https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-sargassum-surge-viewed-as-disaster-in-caribbean. If you live in or have travelled to the Caribbean in recent years, you may have had the chance to catch a whiff of Sargassum, a brown algae that has plagued many picturesque coastlines with seemingly endless thickets of seaweed. That characteristic rotten egg smell from these seaweed thickets is caused by the emission of hydrogen sulfide gas, which at high conce ..read more

Written by: Jasmine Haskell Edited by: Danielle Moloney  Featured image by: https://conservation.reefcause.com/how-does-plastic-pollution-impact-coral-reefs/ Around 60-80% of the world’s litter is made up of plastic with nearly 10% of yearly plastic finding its way into the oceans via rivers, sewer discharges, and runoff from rainfall (Mendrik et al., 2021). Unfortunately, this plastic debris – specifically microplastics – can have detrimental effects on marine life, including coral reefs. Microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size, have been identified as a considerable ..read more

Escrito por Evan Quinter, Traducido por Diana Carolina Vergara, Revisado por Catalina Ramírez-Portilla. Original artcicle here. Los corales son conocidos como la columna vertebral de los ecosistemas de arrecifes  porque albergan una amplia diversidad de organismos marinos. También albergan criaturas mucho más pequeñas como los microorganismos, que ayudan a los corales con una variedad de funciones, incluido el ciclado de nutrientes y la producción de energía. Aunque pueden atrapar su propia comida, los corales dependen de sus micro-residentes fotosintéticos para el 90% de su consumo de en ..read more

By Danielle Moloney  Edited by Jasmine Haskell Featured Image: Photo courtesy of savethereef.org.  Introduction Coral reefs are some of the most popular tourist attractions for countries around the globe. These regions are usually accompanied by warm weather and a lot of sunshine. As tourists flock to reefs and take a dip in the ocean to see what’s below the surface, they bring along an uninvited visitor: sunscreen! Sunscreen is recommended to protect our skin from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays that can lead to serious health issues. It works by using compounds such as oxybenzone to ..read more

By Danielle Moloney  Edited by Jasmine Haskell Introduction Coral reefs across the globe face a host of stressors that challenge their success. From warming ocean temperatures to ocean acidification, these already fragile systems have a lot to reckon with in order to ensure their survival. Disease is one of many obstacles for coral reefs. In low frequency, disease can help select for the most resilient corals (as weaker individuals may die off from infection) and can help build a stronger colony. However, disease outbreaks with high frequency can undo generations of growth and impact the ..read more

Written by: Manu madhavan Edited by: Sofia Perez and Bobbie Renfro Crown-of-thrown starfish (CoTS) Acanthaster planci, is a large species of starfish (Echinoderm) that is covered in crown-like spikes and feeds on living coral polyps, causing widespread damage to the coral reef’s ecosystem in the Pacific when this native species becomes highly abundant.  While the starfish is native to the Indo-Pacific region, it can occasionally act like an invasive species due to its dense populations and the devastation it is capable of wreaking on the Great Barrier Reef’s corals (Gruber, K. 2015). Outb ..read more

By: Jasmine Haskell Edited by: Danielle Moloney  Have Pinky and the Brain finally succeeded in their plan of taking over the world? Not quite yet, but invasive rats originating from Southeast Asia have successfully decimated native wildlife on many islands around the world. In fact, invasive rats have been implicated as the cause of ecological and sociological demise of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). While this theory is still widely debated, rat invasions in recent centuries have proven to be quite the nuisance, with some countries initiating rat eradication programs to help alleviate the pro ..read more

Author: Jill Ashey Editor: Skylar Collins Paper: Carlot et al. (2023). Coral reef structural complexity loss exposes coastlines to waves. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-28945-x  Coral reefs are known throughout the world for the many ecosystem services that they provide, one of them being actors of coastal protection. Reef structures naturally buffer shorelines against waves, storms and floods, mitigating property damage and erosion. Due to their proximity to the coast, coral reefs act as natural barriers, dissipating wave energy before it reaches the shoreline.  More tha ..read more

Written by Manu madhavan Edited by Sofia Perez Countless flora and fauna call coral reefs home, making this ecosystem one of the most essential and diverse on the planet. However, coral reefs face almost as many threats as a result of pollution, overfishing, and climate change. The parrotfish is a key organism in maintaining the stability and health of coral reef ecosystems. Parrotfishes are brightly coloured tropical creatures that can live up to seven years and spend the majority of their time eating algae from coral reefs. This almost constant eating helps to clean the reef, allowing the co ..read more