A bleaching event kills most of the coral on a Pacific islan…
A bleaching event kills most of the coral on a Pacific island reef. One year later, algae grow over about half of the empty reef surface, and the other half becomes covered by seaweeds and sediment. Two years after the bleaching, many coral larvae begin to settle, but almost all of them settle on the algae and not on the seaweed-covered areas. These algae create a surface that helps young corals attach and survive. After five years, the corals have grown large enough to spread into areas that were originally covered by seaweed and sediment. Ten years after the bleaching, the reef is dominated again by large coral colonies. This ecological process between the coral and algae is an example of…