boneyard

Coral are an animal, not a plant. Sitting on their skeletal structures are hundred of polyps, and under their skin live millions of tiny micro algae, Zooxanthele, in which they share mutualistic symbiosis. Coral bleaching is a phenomenon observed when the temperature of the water that the coral lives in rises by 2°C. The algae no longer works properly, and so the coral dispels it, leaving behind its white skeletal structure.

Without the algae, the coral soon dies, leaving behind a visceral landscape of skeletons