). The symbionts are photosynthetic organisms, which allows them to make their own nutrients to provide nourishment to themselves and the coral. The coral, in turn, provides the zooxanthellae with carbon dioxide which undergoes chemical degradation to produce metabolic fuels and nutrients (Yamashita et al. 2014). The expulsion of zooxanthellae is not immediately fatal for the coral, but it does remove their source of nutrition, which often proves to be lethal for the coral in the long-term (Adam et al. 2013).
