Corals and other marine life. Recent studies indicate that climate change could wreak havoc on coral reefs around the world, especially those already stressed by pollution, nutrient loading, physical destruction, and overfishing. A rise in sea level, for example, could submerge many corals too deep for their survival. Carbon dioxide deposited from the air into the oceans interferes with corals ability to build up calcium carbonate, the substance that forms their protective skeletons. Warmer water tem-peratures cause coral to lose the colorful algae they host, leading to a condition known as bleaching.
Corals weakened by bleaching are more vulnerable to storms, predators, and disease.
In fact, coral diseases already are on the rise, the result perhaps of warmer sea water and atmospheric dust gener-ated by widespread drought and overgrazing in such regions as Africa s Sahel. Marine diseases in general appear to thrive in warmer seas. Rising temperatures are blamed for toxic algae blooms that have killed manatees in Florida and monk seals in the Mediterranean. Warm surface temperatures and fluctuating salinity have caused outbreaks of slime mold in Florida turtlegrass, one of the sea grasses that sustains many fish and shellfish and is an important food source for endangered manatees and sea turtles. All rights reserved.