Coral bleaching is a stress-induced biological process in which reef-building scleractinian corals lose all or most of their endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (family Symbiodiniaceae) and/or their photosynthetic pigments, leading to visible paling or whitening of coral tissues. Triggered primarily by elevated sea surface temperatures, but also by light stress, pollution, or oxidative stress, bleaching involves disruption of the coral–algal symbiosis through mechanisms such as reactive oxygen species overproduction, damage to photosystem II, and activation of host cellular stress pathways that drive symbiont expulsion or degradation. Prolonged or repeated bleaching events impair coral metabolism, calcification, and reproduction, often increasing mortality and restructuring reef ecosystems.
Since the first major bleaching event in 1996, Hawaiian corals have been subject to increasing heat stress and more frequent bleaching events. New research from oceanographers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa used high-resolution ...
Plants & Animals
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Scientists working to save a coral species from extinction transported 30 pieces from nurseries off the Florida coast to a hatchery on land Wednesday, fearing that warming waters could trigger a mass bleaching event this ...
Ecology
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Australia's Great Barrier Reef is at very high risk of extreme and widespread bleaching and "ecosystem collapse" linked to this year's El Niño weather phenomenon, leading scientists warned Tuesday.
Ecology
Jul 21, 2026
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To track the impacts of environmental change and enable conservation efforts, we must first understand the composition of our ecosystems. A new online resource provides a comprehensive overview of hard coral distribution ...
Ecology
Jul 19, 2026
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Human activities are fundamentally altering the chemical makeup of coral reefs, according to a study led by the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and published in Nature Communications. The research team discovered that 25 contaminants ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 17, 2026
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Why do some coral reefs weather marine heat waves better than others? A new study published in Scientific Reports shows that the answer may lie not only in local ocean conditions, but also in climate patterns that span entire ...
Ecology
Jul 12, 2026
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Seagrass meadows play a largely overlooked role in providing nutrition for coastal communities, a new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability has found. The research, led by scientists at Project Seagrass and Stockholm ...
Ecology
Jul 9, 2026
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The reefs scattered throughout the tropics arose only after algae took up full-time residence in coral cells, supplying corals with abundant food and enabling them to build extensive shallow-water communities. But with warming ...
Ecology
Jul 1, 2026
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Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) led one of the first global assessments of how marine ecosystems responded during the first year when global temperatures temporarily exceeded 1.5°C ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 26, 2026
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Coral reef ecosystems, widely seen as a climate change bellwether, are more complex than previously understood. A new international study by the universities of Bristol, Wuhan in China, and Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany reveals ...
Evolution
Jun 23, 2026
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