A number of environmental factors, both natural and anthropogenic, can cause bleaching. Global warming has been theorized to have caused massive global bleaching events over the past two decades. Monitoring and management may help us understand and reduce threats to corals. I. Coral Reef Systems A. Reef Propertie 1. Reefs are found in circumtropical shallow waters along the shores of islands and continents.
Reefs live in nutrient poor waters.
Reef substrate is composed of calcium carbonate from living and dead scleractinian corals. These corals have a symbiotic relationship with a single-celled algae known as zooxanthallae. B. Zooxanthallae 1. Zooxanthallae live symbiotically within coral polyp tissue. They assist coral in nutrient production through photosynthetic activities.