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Coral Reefs

How these connect

Reef-building corals (Scleractinia) and what it relates to. Every line is an evidence-backed relation, and the arrangement is fixed — this address draws this picture, today and next year.

affects — A bleached colony is starving rather than dead, and survives if the stress abates within weeks; prolonged bleaching kills it.caused_by — Mass bleaching events are triggered by sustained sea temperature above the local summer maximum, so a marine heatwave is the proximate agent of every one recorded.constrained_by — Marine heatwaves recurring at intervals shorter than the decade an assemblage needs to rebuild are the limit on reef persistence, rather than the severity of any single event.depends_on — Reef-building corals derive the majority of their energy budget from carbon fixed by symbionts living in their tissue, which is what allows them to build large structures in nutrient-poor water.preys_on — The starfish everts its stomach over living coral and digests the tissue off the skeleton; at outbreak densities a reef can lose most of its living cover in a few years.instance_of — Acropora palmata is a zooxanthellate scleractinian and was the principal shallow-water reef builder of the Caribbean.displaced_from — Bleaching is the loss of the symbionts from host tissue: the host expels them, or they lose their pigments, leaving the white skeleton visible through transparent tissue.Coral bleachingCoral bleachingMarine heatwaveMarine heatwaveCrown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster)Crown-of-thorns starfish …Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata)Elkhorn coral (Acropora p…Reef-building corals (Scleractinia)Reef-building corals (Scl…Zooxanthellae (Symbiodiniaceae)Zooxanthellae (Symbiodini…
6 drawn · 9 reachable and not drawn · positions derived from object ids, never from a simulation
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Every relation drawn, in words7
  1. Coral bleaching · affects · Reef-building corals (Scleractinia)

    A bleached colony is starving rather than dead, and survives if the stress abates within weeks; prolonged bleaching kills it.

  2. Coral bleaching · caused_by · Marine heatwave

    Mass bleaching events are triggered by sustained sea temperature above the local summer maximum, so a marine heatwave is the proximate agent of every one recorded.

  3. Reef-building corals (Scleractinia) · constrained_by · Marine heatwave

    Marine heatwaves recurring at intervals shorter than the decade an assemblage needs to rebuild are the limit on reef persistence, rather than the severity of any single event.

  4. Reef-building corals (Scleractinia) · depends_on · Zooxanthellae (Symbiodiniaceae)

    Reef-building corals derive the majority of their energy budget from carbon fixed by symbionts living in their tissue, which is what allows them to build large structures in nutrient-poor water.

  5. Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster) · preys_on · Reef-building corals (Scleractinia)

    The starfish everts its stomach over living coral and digests the tissue off the skeleton; at outbreak densities a reef can lose most of its living cover in a few years.

  6. Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) · instance_of · Reef-building corals (Scleractinia)

    Acropora palmata is a zooxanthellate scleractinian and was the principal shallow-water reef builder of the Caribbean.

  7. Zooxanthellae (Symbiodiniaceae) · displaced_from · Reef-building corals (Scleractinia)

    Bleaching is the loss of the symbionts from host tissue: the host expels them, or they lose their pigments, leaving the white skeleton visible through transparent tissue.