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The original was posted on /r/collapse by /u/phred14 on 2024-07-13 19:35:02+00:00.
I live in the Northeast, and our lake water is nowhere near clear. You're lucky to see five feet. I've been told that our water is "productive", meaning that there's lots of life in there. My daughter got her MS studying the plankton populations in Lake Champlain. The plankton is the bottom of the food chain.
Conversely in (for example) the Florida Keys the water is crystal clear. I've also been told that that water is impoverished, much less plankton. If that's the case it would seem to me that the bottom of the food chain may be the coral, along with what little plankton there is.
That would suggest that if the coral bleaches and dies, the food chain in those water collapses. Lose the coral, lose the fisheries and the sport fishing tourism along with the (my part in this) snorkeling tourism. Basically lose the economy of the Keys, except for maybe alcohol tourism in Key West.
I'm willing to admit that these are slightly educated guesses, and there is a good chance that I'm wrong on some of these points, perhaps all. I'm ready to be corrected.