A coral bleaching model

Volterra–Hamilton systems theory is used to model coral bleaching. The algal and coral partners in the obligate symbiont organism exchange compounds, each one producing compounds benefiting the other. It is found that the production equations, based on a homogeneous cost functional, have unstable solutions which become stable in a constant temperature environment. Temperature spikes and global warming occur in the noisy background. The variety of clade distributions for the algal symbiont is shown to be a consequence of Nelson’s stochastic mechanics.