Bleaching of Caribbean Reef Corals

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Coral bleaching is a process whereby living coral animals expell the symbiotic algae that are nomally retained in the coral tissue. This has occurred to an unprecendented extent thoughout the Caribbean in the fall of 1987. Drs. Porter and Fitt of the University of Georgia will conduct an analysis of this phenomenon at a previously well studied site in the Florida Keys. They will monitor bleaching events and subsequent reinfection or death of the corals in the Key Largo National Marine Sactuary during 1988. The field work will include an early 1988 census of the area and the establishment of new experimental sites for monitoring recovery, reinfection and isotope analysis.