Butterfly Reef Research Paper

There are many unfair aspects of life, but everyone is guaranteed a few of the same things. Everyone is promised access to oxygen, promised life, and assured death. At some point everyone must die. People will spend more time dead than alive, so it is important to make a wise decision for bodily disposal after death. In spite of the fact that there are many traditional and ‘proper’ forms of afterlife arrangements, Eternal Reefs are considerate of the environment, of space, and of costs to the family; Ergo the method of Eternal Reefs is the superlative choice of body disposal after death.

The Great Barrier Reef is an oceanic/costal ecosystem off the coastline of Port Douglas, Australia. There are man costal systems that are significant to the role of the Reef including coral reefs, wetlands, and rainforests etc. The reef consists of many diverse corals and is a home for over 1,500 different species of fish. The reef is unique for many distinctive reasons; a reason that is unique is that it is acknowledged as one of the most imperative biological possessions. The Reef is a complex ecosystem with numerous organisms trusting on each other for nourishment and endurance. Broadly all collections of maritime plants and animals are extravagantly signified in the Reef. The animals range from dugongs

Butterflies are very beautiful and helpful insects. There are 12,000 types in the United States and 165,000 in the world. They are covered in scale-like hairs and have a long tongue called a proboscis used to suck pollen and nectar. Butterflies have beautiful designs on their wings that help classify them.

The El Segundo Blue Butterfly is an endangered specie, and it’s been on the endangered specie list since June 1, 1976. They live in the El Segundo Dunes of Los Angeles County in California. They rely on dune buckwheat for their entire life cycle. There are two scientists who have been working on bringing back the butterfly since 2007. The names of the scientists are Travis Longcore and Ann Dalkey there is also a group called “the Xerxes society”. They helped by convincing the “Standard Oil Company” to manage a small portion of the butterflies habitat.

It is estimated that by the end of the century, climate change and warmer oceans will kill coral reefs. Lubofsky follows the studies of graduate student Hannah Barkley in this article. Hannah Barkley has been studying coral health in the western Pacific. She investigates how coral reefs respond to climate change and which corals can survive in this climate change. Coral reefs “provide habitats for 25 percent of all marine species” (Lubofsky 28) and protect shorelines from storm damage. Barkley moved her research from “Cape Cod to the Rock Islands of Palau to study reef communities” (Lubofsky 28) since temperature and acidity have risen in some Palauan bays. To obtain the temperatures in the Palauan reefs, Barkley and her colleagues set up a network of underwater temperature sensors around the barrier reef and inside the lagoons. One of Barkley’s advisors, Cohen, found that “ocean warming affects coral reefs in at least two ways” (Lubofsky 29). First, an increase in temperature by 1oC can break down the symbiotic relationship between the coral and algae causing the corals to become bleached and die. Coral bleaching happens when the symbiotic relationship is gone and photosynthesis ceases to occur. Second, warming “stratifies the ocean into warmer surface layers and denser,

Easily the most well-known natural World Heritage Site in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, which is the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, was inscribed with UNESCO in 1981. The site covers approximately 348,000 square kilometers and includes a wide range of depths, comprising of shallow inshore, mid-shelf, and even extending into oceanic waters 2,000 meters deep. The Great Barrier Reef is actually made up of around 2,500 individual reefs, encompassing some 400 different species of coral, which makes for some of the most remarkable underwater scenery in the world. The massive size and varying depths allows for a wide array of ecological habitats and species, making the reef one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet.

Looking at the aspects mentioned above, which threaten and harm the Great Barrier Reef every day, it becomes clear that it needs special protection. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority ( GBRMPA ) is an governmental organization that fulfills the tasks of managing the big reef, informing tourists about the reef and rules, verifying the stock of native animals and of course controlling the health of the sensitive coral reefs by checking them frequently.

Global declines in coral reef abundance are closely associated with increasing human pressures (Hughes et al., 2003 and Pandolfi et al., 2003). Projected trends of ocean warming and acidification will exacerbate coral reef degradation, creating adverse human and ecological consequences in locations such as the Hawaiian Islands where economic benefits of coral reefs are estimated to exceed $360 million yr−1 (Cesar and Van Beukering, 2004 and Nicholls et al., 2007). Corals face additional local stressors which may intensify climate change induced effects and act synergistically to alter benthic community structure (Ateweberhan et al., 2013 and Smith et al., 2001). The impact of local stressors such as water pollution on coral health will rise as anthropogenic disturbances persist in the coastal environment.

even though coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystem in the world, they only contains 3 types of plants that helps the corals grow. algae is one of the plants that grows in the coral reef. this algae plant is the smallest plant of them all and most of the algae plants can only be seen in microscopes. most plants have stems, roots and leaves but for algae plants they don't have all these parts to a plant. the food source for smaller fishes and invertebrate that live in the coral reef is the algae plants. 500 or more marine species that are algae live in the great barrier which is in australia. these algae plants come in different colors such as red, blue, and green. they are known as cyanobacteria and they form tufts and crusts. the red algae

Coral reefs are found in the ocean where the sunlight hits them the most, because they need the help of algae in order to make their skeleton . Algae needs sunlight to grow so it would be found near the surface of the ocean which explains why Coral reefs are near the surface of the ocean. Miranda Macquitty who wrote “Ocean” writes “Related to sea anemones and jellyfish, corals grow in an exquisite variety of shapes and some have colorful skeletons.” Miranda means that coral reefs come in many shapes and sizes.There are over 2500 different types. It does not mean that corals have different features, therefore they have the basics such as tentacles to catch food, a skeleton, a mouth to eliminate waste, and a stomach to process food. The

Scientist observed the, Limacina helicina, planktonic sea butterfly in slow motion. As they did they discovered its unique features that resemble the combination of a snail and a butterfly. The scientist said, “Its insect-like acrobatics are "a remarkable example of convergent evolution", the researchers write. In other words, the same trait has evolved more than once in completely independent lineages.” It has a snail shell and two floppy wings that move in a figure eight pattern. The snail is made of gelatinous except for the shell. The snail usually has feet where these plankton’s wings are. It also uses it wings to scare of predators by putting them together so they look larger. The wings allow them the ability to move around quickly.

Corals have existed for around 500 million years and are the second most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth (NOAA). The coral reefs are showing a decline in health due to human activities which, although well known, is often overlooked in favor of research on ecological aspects (Kittinger). Certain ocean areas that previously were home of coral species may no longer be an ideal climate for the corals to thrive. Whereas properly maintained aquariums could provide a more suitable habitat to encourage re-population (Gustavson). Two agencies that are very active, with differing viewpoints, on the coral reef conservation debate

COTS or Crown of Thorn Starfish are important to the reefs ecosystems to maintain numbers fasting growing specie of coral by eating them to allow slower growing corals to grow creating a more diverse ecosystem (2). But due to large scale outbreak of COTS the negative effects of too much coral decline has been seen and with the 50% decrease of coral seen over the last 30 years COTS have been responsible for 25% of it (3). The overgrazing of the coral by these Starfish and their negative effects on the corals has seen them become a real threat to the ecosystem this correlation can be seen in graph 1.

The decaying state of Earth’s environment has quite literally been a heated topic for years now. From the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest to the acidification of Earth’s oceans, humanity has been abusing the natural resources that this planet has to offer for decades. The natural resource in the most immediate danger are the coral reefs present in tropical waters around the world. There is no tomorrow for these ecosystems; The time to act is now. According to Bradbury (2012), “Overfishing, ocean acidification and pollution are pushing coral reefs into oblivion. Each of those forces alone is fully capable of causing the global collapse of coral reefs; together, they assure it.” To a large extent, the damage is already done, however, efforts are still being made to preserve these beautiful sources of biodiversity. As there are with all aspects of life, there are always going to be naysayers, even when scientific research and data confirm the effects and byproducts of global warming. In this case, the disappearance of coral reefs may just be the unfortunate evidence that is needed to finally show that action must be taken to save the planet. Coral reefs are dying and this in turn kills off the reef ecosystems, and while some measures are being taken to combat the adverse effects of their absence, coral reefs are facing a downward spiral that will prove difficult to reverse.

These species inhabit the Indo-Pacific Archipelago and eastern Pacific region; it is known as the most abundant types of fish on the reefs at this location (Pratchett et al. 2004). There has been a significant decline in the butterfly fish due to bleaching. Butterfly fish rely on the coral reefs for food. The fish were starving to death and declining in numbers due to failure in breeding caused by the destruction of reefs. The destruction of these reefs was purely environmental, caused by high water temperatures. Butterfly fish sustain life by feeding on living tissues from scleractinian corals (Pratchett et al. 2004), with the high-water temperatures and corals unable to sustain life, the butterfly fish started dying out. Scientists predicted that the butterfly fish would migrate to another reef, but instead they stayed and essentially started starving to death (Pratchett et al. 2004). Coral bleaching also impacts other aquatic animals that depend on them, such as invertebrates that rely on living coral for food and