As the summer winds down, many head to the mountains or the beach to take a last-minute holiday. In addition to excessively warm water temperatures, a number of other factors, including pollution, may be contributing to widespread bleaching of corals. A key protein in photosynthesis, known as the D1 protein, is extremely temperature sensitive. Tropical corals are actually made up of algae, living inside a coral animal. If seawater temperatures during summer remain too high for too long, photosynthesis in the coral's algae breaks down, leaving the coral with less food.
Tropical corals are already on the edge of the 'temperature envelope' of life during most summers.
The camera allows Web surfers to look from the Continental Divide, across the main Niwot Ridge LTER study areas, and on down to Denver and the Great Plains. Located at an elevation of 11,600 feet in Colorado's Front Range, the camera is above timberline on the ridge about 25 miles west of Boulder. The peaks at the head of the ridge form the Continental Divide. The software allows multiple users to control the camera simultaneously. TundraCam is mounted on a weather tower located at the LTER site's Tundra Laboratory, one of several labs on Niwot Ridge.