CNN News: 珊瑚白化

Which of these invertebrates is an anthozoan known for its stony skeleton? Coral, sea anemone, mollusk, or starfish?

下列哪種無脊椎動物，屬于珊瑚蟲并因?yàn)槠涫夜趋莱雒?珊瑚、海葵、軟體動物或海星?

Answer here is coral. The skeletons or the animal that secretes them, forming ocean reefs.

答案是珊瑚。珊瑚是珊瑚蟲分泌出的外殼。

AZUZ: And while coral and coral reefs are known for their incredibly vibrant colors, they can bleach white if they get stressed. Scientists observed this last year in the worst ever bleaching of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Coral's colors determined by the algae that live on it, and the algae are coral's food source.

珊瑚和珊瑚礁正以令人難以置信絢麗的色彩而出名,但是由于氣溫上升它們可以被漂白為白色。科學(xué)家在去年觀察到了澳大利亞大堡礁正在經(jīng)歷歷史上最嚴(yán)重的白化事件。珊瑚的顏色是由其居于其上的藻類決定的，同時藻類是珊瑚的食物。

But if the coral gets stressed, it can lose these algae and then turned white. This can happen if water temperatures get too warmed or too cold, or if there's pollution or an extremely low tide. It's a sign of bad health, but the coral can recover.

但是如果氣溫上升，珊瑚的周圍的壓力加大，它就會失去這些藻類，然后白化。如果海水溫度過高或者過低，污染或者極低的退潮都會導(dǎo)致上述事件。這是珊瑚不健康的標(biāo)志，但是它們也可以恢復(fù)。

There's more affected than the reef itself though. Consider the ripple effects of a recent coral bleaching event near Madagascar.

這對此影響的不僅僅是珊瑚本身。例如馬達(dá)加斯加由于珊瑚白化所產(chǎn)生的連鎖反應(yīng)。