Conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development is the UN's 14th Sustainable Development Goal. Shallow coral reefs provide food, income, well-being and coastal protection to countries around the Indian Ocean and Asia.
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. Severe heat stress causes bleaching. Both coral bleaching and ocean acidification pose threats to human food supplies. Many commercial fish species such as snappers and groupers live and breed among coral reefs, so they are threatened by bleaching.
In the Indian Ocean, coral reefs experienced large-scale bleaching and mortality because of high temperatures in 1998 and 2005 and again in 2010 and 2015. About 66% of the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East are stressed by local threats.
In this infographic, we have represented how coral bleaching happens, its cause and the stats. We have also mapped significant coral bleaching events in 4 regions of India- the Gulf of Kutch, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, and the Gulf of Mannar.
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. Severe heat stress causes bleaching. Both coral bleaching and ocean acidification pose threats to human food supplies. Many commercial fish species such as snappers and groupers live and breed among coral reefs, so they are threatened by bleaching.
In the Indian Ocean, coral reefs experienced large-scale bleaching and mortality because of high temperatures in 1998 and 2005 and again in 2010 and 2015. About 66% of the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East are stressed by local threats.
In this infographic, we have represented how coral bleaching happens, its cause and the stats. We have also mapped significant coral bleaching events in 4 regions of India- the Gulf of Kutch, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, and the Gulf of Mannar.
