Facts about Coral Reef Bleaching and Its Effects
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A single bleaching event can cause coral recovery to take a decade or longer, leaving reefs highly susceptible to repeated stress before they can rebuild.
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The Great Barrier Reef experienced mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 in consecutive years for the first time in recorded history.
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Bleached reefs lose their structural complexity over time, reducing habitat availability for the thousands of fish and invertebrate species that depend on healthy coral ecosystems.
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Widespread reef bleaching events have increased in frequency since the 1980s, threatening roughly half of the world's coral reefs.
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Coral bleaching occurs when elevated sea temperatures cause corals to expel their symbiotic algae, known as zooxanthellae, leaving the coral white and vulnerable to death.