Coral Bleaching: A White Death Of The Ocean

Elevated sea temperatures caused by climate change and extra-bright sunlight can result in coral bleaching. As the water gets warmer, corals will expel the algae known as zooxanthellae that lives in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. When temperatures drop, the corals can recover, but they might be vulnerable to disease and when

Coral reefs are found in shallow tropical waters along the shores of islands and continents. Coral bleaching is a topic that gets left in the dust. Not many people really pay attention or show much interest in it. Widespread bleaching, involving major coral reef regions and resulting in mass coral mortality has raised concerns about linkage of the events to global phenomenons including global warming or climate change and increased UV radiation from ozone depletion. Corals provide a lot not just for us humans but for marine life as well. Marine Biology provides information about how bleaching happens and how it affects the coral. Buchheims’ article is full of logos and a few pathos while the other source is full of ethos. In The Nature Conservancy’s director Stephanie Wear provides us with lots of professional opinions

"Coral reefs… are fragile structures living within a narrow range of temperature, clarity, salinity and chemistry. Even a slight increase in ocean temperature, or increased CO2… can cause stresses such as bleaching… These stresses slow the rate of growth of the corrals… With some 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs now losing productivity, it’s becoming a global crisis and a scientific mystery."

The environmental issue I chose for this presentation was the bleaching of the coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching has been monitored by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) since the early 1980s and major bleaching events have occurred in 1980, 1982, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2016.

Worldwide we are facing an epidemic of large-scale Coral Reefs bleaching themselves white. Although white coral is not dead it is likely to die shortly after bleaching. The main problem is global warming, this causes overfishing, pollution and rising ocean temperatures with more acidity. Global warming is an issue that affects our planet, especially in the ocean. This problem has also an economic and political impact because "If the reefs vanished, experts say, hunger, poverty and political instability could ensue."

I set out to find an article that related back to the information from our class in at least three ways. This seemed to be much of a challenge for me because I was focused on specifically looking for things relating back to the class, I was not focusing on any of my interests. I came across this article and the magnificent picture with extraordinary coral reefs caught my eye. The ocean has always been of interest to me. It is fascinating how little we know about our ocean because of its magnificent size. Having never been to a tropical island, the clear blue water always seems to amaze me. After reading this article out of my own pure interest, it happened to be that I would be able to use it for this paper. This article not only served as a completion of an assignment but also a way to expand my knowledge on many of my

C: Even though an abundance of research is being conducted by scientists in order to help save the coral reef, their efforts seem to be getting nowhere due to the ignorance of people who do not know how bad the problem truly is. E: Scientists are currently using Google Maps technology to take pictures of the reefs to showcase the severity of the problem (Chasing Coral). A: This makes pictures of the reef’s condition accessible to anyone anywhere on earth, therefore making education about the reef more accessible. E: NOAA is transforming the ways reefs are researched by using satellites to detect where bleaching is occurring and at what level (Chasing Coral). A: By doing this, NOAA is providing useful information to scientists

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is experiencing bleaching. According to France-Presse, bleaching of a reef is “coral...that has been stressed by the heat” (France-Presse). When a coral has been “stressed by heat,” (France-Presse) the coral discards the algae that lives within itself which causes the coral to be more susceptible to disease. It can take up to several decades for a coral to recover from bleaching. Because of that fact that most coral does not have enough time to recover, it dies.

Global warming has been on the world’s radar for many years. For Australia and our world heritage site, the rising sea temperatures in the last three decades have seriously affected the Great Barrier Reef in many ways, the most concerning of which being coral bleaching. This incredibly beautiful but fragile underwater world is also

The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching at a significantly alarming rate. As scientists figured out it is contributed by three main perpetrators. The main culprit of the bleaching of the bleaching of the reefs is record warming water. This has been linked to El Niño and global warming. Next, acidification of the ocean from mainly human causes. Finally, fishing impacts have hurt the barrier a great deal. The northern part of Australia is bleaching much more rapidly than the south. The reef brings in a lot of tourism and money for Australia and losing it would also mean losing a lot of jobs for people as well. Scientists have noticed through the bleaching some coral species have survived and

Coral reefs cover a small percentage of the world’s oceans, but contain a vast amount of marine and plant life. Overfishing has had a major impact on coral reefs. For example, commercial fishing operations that use dynamite cause fish to float to the surface, but this also destroys the reef (Baker 481). Environmentalists are concerned about the human impact on coral reefs and state that they will soon be extinct. What sparked the major concern worldwide was an obituary for the Great Barrier Reef that was published online in early October of 2016 by this website claiming that the GBR was dead and had become extinct (Bastone 2017). The story went viral, provoking much debate. The article gives all the facts about the GBR, its history from creation to present day, and information about the GBR and its designation as a World Heritage Site. It emphasizes that beginning in 1981, the GBR has suffered 4 mass bleaching incidents. It concludes that by 2025, all of the reefs will be dead. The article brought attention to the GBR and made millions of people take notice of its present condition. After its release, scientists have defended or refuted the information due to the pressure the government received from the public. CNN refutes the article of Outlook magazine that announced the GBR was dead. It published an article the same week as Outlook that goes over the claims made by Outlook but discusses that

Coral reefs around the world are in danger. One of the causes is global warming, which has been increasing the temperature of the ocean water resulting in coral bleaching. This essay will focus on damage occurring to the Great Barrier Reef.

Coral bleaching is the process of ejecting most or all of endosymbiotic zooxanthellae in a stress response to fluctuations in corals external environment (4 360 link). In extreme case which are happening at a more regular occurrence, the bleaching response is disastrous for the coral host as well as the entire reefscapes for the Great Barrier Reef (4 360 link).

Coral bleaching isn’t as extreme as it sounds, it’s just a way for coral to adapt to changes in their environment but it’s still a bad thing to happen. Warmer temperatures and also ocean acidification are the culprits of coral bleaching, making the coral expel algae from their tissues and causing the coral to be white. For example, the 1998 El Nino/ mass coral bleaching event, the article Not just a pretty face (2) proposes that “although it was triggered by a natural event”, it demonstrated how the ocean can adapt under stress but it also “symbolizes the ultimate consequence of our thirst for fossil fuels”. It’s normal for climate change to cause such an effect on the reefs, humans are to blame for the more rapid climate change though. Believe

The Great Barrier Reef is under immense environmental pressure, the most prominent issue being climate change. The reef system is a vulnerable ecosystem that requires particular specifications to survive. Corals ideal temperature is between 25-29 degrees Celsius; when this temperature rises for more than 2 weeks at a time, coral bleaching can occur. Coral bleaching can affect 60-95% of the reef, the northern third of the reef being the most heavily damaged. The increase in cyclones (particularly from 2005-2014) has been attributed to climate change, as well as an inflation in crown of thorn starfish outbreaks. A rise in sea level as well as the reasons mentioned above has led to the rapid deterioration of the reefs ecosystem health, thus a