Coral Reef Climate Change Essay

Corals dislike warm water about as much as acidity. When oceans get typically warm, corals can eject the algae that symbiotically live in their skeletons, providing food in exchange for shelter. The ejection process is called bleaching, named by the white skeleton left behind when the coral gets sick and, in some cases, dies.

Coral reefs are about 6% of the Great Barrier Reef. However the warmer the air and the water temperature is the more corals it kill. This is a major concern because of the damages it can cause other creatures using corals as a home and protection from predators. Many sea creatures could become extinct if there are no coral reefs.

Coral bleaching is normally characterized by the expulsion of the zooxanthellae algae, loss of algal pigmentation, or both. Coral bleaching events have had serious effects on corals and reefs worldwide. What is crucial to the understanding of zooxanthellae expulsion and bleaching is how the density of zooxanthellae within the coral is changing, if at all, under the prevailing range of environmental conditions (Gates and Edmunds, 1999). Over the last twenty years, there has been a dramatic increase in both the frequency and intensity of coral bleaching events. Sixty major bleaching events have been reported between 1960 and 1979, whereas only nine were reported prior to 1979 (Huppert and Stone, 1998). Given the dependence of the coral on this symbiotic algae, it is important to determine the cause of these bleaching events. According to Helvarg (2000, p.12):

Since early 1998, climate change has been demonstrating its effects in increasing the ocean 's temperature (West & Salm, 2003). Warm water stress corals causing the phenomenon known as coral bleaching, by which expulsion of colourful symbiotic algae the zooxanthellae, vital for

The impacts that climate change has on coral reefs is very concerning. The increase in sea temperatures is causing the coral reefs to become bleached. When a coral becomes bleached it causes them to expel the algae, leaving the corals white. Bleached corals results in many negative effects. When a coral is bleached they have reduced growth rates, the species that depend on them are affected, and there is a decline in coral reef protection from shorelines. The devastating impacts that climate change has on coral reefs are unpredictable to the sea and the ecosystem. It is a very unfortunate event that the rise in sea temperatures are causing these devastating impacts on coral reefs.

    Coral reef destruction is a big deal. There are many environmental threats on coral reefs which means they are slowly dying. Coral reefs play a very important part in marine ecosystems. Sea creatures depend on them for protection, camouflage, as a home, and also for food. Scientists believe this could be from natural causes like erosion, and global warming as reasons that coral reefs die off but one of the main reasons is pollution. There are many different ways pollution can affect coral reefs. There is a chemical in sunscreen called oxybenzone that may be contributing to the destruction of coral reefs as swimmers are trying to protect their skin. This chemical has toxic effects on young coral that can damage their DNA,

Located in tropical ocean waters, coral reefs provide priceless resources to both human and marine life. The leading natural cause of destruction among the coral reefs is global warming. Other natural causes are earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons. The destruction to the coral reefs from these natural disasters is minimal compared to the dangers caused by man. Man-made destruction has a much wider impact on the health of the coral reefs. This destruction includes over-fishing, damage from anchors, aquarium industry, overgrowth of seaweed, and being smothered by sediments.

Change in ocean Temperature: increased ocean temperature drastically caused by climate change is the leading cause of coral bleaching.

The article, Warming Bleaches Two-Thirds of Great Barrier Reef , talks about how Coral reef ecosystems around the world are threatened by human and climate change. The waters of the ocean are raising due to global warming, in turn

Coral bleaching may seem new and a strange topic, but it has been around and wreaking havoc for many of years. Bleaching starts to happen when the water temperatures rise slightly above average temps for more than several days, which then kills the vibrant coral (“Global Warming”). The coral reefs get their vivid color from algae and other small organisms. They are found in the coral’s tissue. Algae helps supply food for the reef through carbohydrates. The algae creates the carbohydrates through photosynthesis (“Coral Reefs”). Coral bleaching

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,

Coral reef ecosystems around the globe are threatened by human interferences and climate change. This has led to many scientists conducting studies on global coral reef ecosystems to gain a better understanding of the cause and effects of coral reef damage. In both Hodgson’s (1999) and Carpenter et al.’s (2008) studies, they are aware of the continuous degradation of global coral reef ecosystems. Hodgson's study involved conducting a survey on global coral reef ecosystems to see whether human actions were affecting the health of supposed pristine Coral reefs. Carpenter et al. incorporated Hodgson’s study into a compiled study about the possible extinction of reef building corals due to climate change and anthropogenic effects. Carpenter’s

Climate change is gradually making the coral and sea life in the reef become warmer, this is due to the sudden rise in greenhouse gasses which is creating a hotter world for us. ‘’The global surface warming trend for 1997–2015 is approximately 0.14°C per decade’’. If this trend continues it will then eventually heat up the ocean too much and then all sea life will slowly die out. ‘’Scientists project a significant loss of biodiversity within a decade, and at worst a 95 percent decrease in the distribution of Great Barrier Reef species by late this century’’. This is what could happen if we don’t find a solution to this

Coral reefs are threatened by global warming. They can only live in waters between 18 C and 30 C. Therefore, with the increase in temperature of the surrounding water, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of coral bleaching events during the past 2 decades (which have had some of the warmest years in history). When ocean temperatures get too high, coral polyps lose the symbiotic algae inside them, causing them to turn white, or "bleach," and eventually die.

There are many causes that contribute to the ghostly image of bleached corals, pollutants in the water, natural events - hurricanes, waves, and human activities - commercial scuba diving, heavy tourism in highly biodiversed aquatic areas. Yet the one major factor that causes this bleaching is the increase in the sea surface temperatures. The warmer temperatures are results of global warming, the rising concentrations of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly carbon dioxide.