Keiko had mapped the coral colony since it was a single polyp in the center of the plot. Each year it spread one cell in every direction, a living ring expanding outward. By the third survey the colony covered the entire quadrat. Then the thermal event hit — ocean temperatures spiked, and the outermost fringe of coral, the most recent growth with the shallowest roots, bleached white and died. Everything that had been there before the final expansion survived. The following season the colony regrew to full cover.