Coral Reefs under the Acid Test Challenge

This photograph illustrates that coral reefs are the greatest victims of ocean acidification indeed!The picture on the left shows a healthy coral reef with living Acropora palmata (an important reef-building coral) under good water quality condition. In contrast, the other picture shows degraded coral reefs with dead  Acropora palmata, suffered from poor water quality caused by ocean acidification. This 'coral bleaching' is becoming more prominant in Puerto Rico, other Caribbean and western tropical Atlantic Ocean regions (Moyer, 2009)