Coral Reef Research Paper

I have been interested in marine sciences since I was a child. I grew up in and around the water. Being a resident of South Florida, and an avid boater, I have seen the degradation of the Florida reef system. I was fortunate enough that my parents were able to purchase a house in Key Largo when I was just 6 years old. I quickly got familiar with the surrounding ocean. My favorite place to go diving was a protected reef about 3 miles offshore called Molasses Reef. Since there is no fishing, lobstering, or even anchoring on this reef, the protected area has not changed much since I was a kid. Yet, one can start seeing changing not too far away for this tropical reef oasis. This part of the reef is unprotected and has changed drastically over

Furthermore, extraction of building materials such as sand affects coral reefs, mangroves, and hinterland forests, leading to erosion and destruction of habitats. Overbuilding and extensive paving of shorelines can result in destruction of habitats and disruption of land-sea connections such as sea-turtle nesting spots. Coral reefs are especially fragile marine ecosystems and are suffering worldwide from reef-based tourism developments. Evidence suggests a variety of impacts to coastline ecosystems result from shoreline development, increased sediments in the water, trampling by tourists and divers, ship groundings, pollution from sewage, overfishing, and fishing with poisons and explosives that destroy coral

Located in tropical ocean waters, coral reefs provide priceless resources to both human and marine

Of those threats, climate change is the one that has the biggest impact on the reef. The rising temperatures are causing bleaching.When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae, called zooxanthellae, living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white (NNOA). Without it, the coral starves, but doesn’t have to die. It can recover from this, but has a higher fatality rate than corals who didn’t go through the bleaching process. The poor water quality is a result of increasing sediment, nutrients and contaminants entering coastal waters in run-off from agricultural, industrial and urban land uses (“Poor Water Quality”). The nutrients and sediments boost algae growth, which effects the corals growth. Overfishing is the final major threat. Once the fisherman catch most of the fish in the area, they must go lower. This leads to them hitting the coral and causing further damage. Although they have these threats, they can overcome it to continue to

Of the coral communities studied, at least half of the reefs were dead. This presents a huge problem for the entire ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico as coral reefs are the base of said ecosystem. Reefs provide organic matter and shelter for several benthic organisms (sponges, worms, clams, crabs, lobsters, etc.). The destruction of shelter poses threats to all of the organisms who live on coral reefs.

One of the main ways that human’s impact coral reefs that could be avoid is coastal development that produces unsustainable tourism. Today, people are constantly looking for tropical places to vacation and adventure on these tropical islands. Since coral reefs can only be supported in tropical waters, they tend to be located by nice beaches on popular islands. The Caribbean is one of the best examples of this. Countries such as Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are generally poor countries with little development. Over the past years, these islands with tropical waters and coral reefs have began to build more and more resorts

Coral reefs have suffered degradation due to anthropogenic activities for decades. The direct and indirect effects of overfishing and pollution from agriculture and land development have been the major drivers of coral reef decline over the past two centuries. More importantly, these threats to coral reefs have been compounded and exacerbated by superimposed impacts of global climate change, such as rising sea temperature and level, and increased ocean acidification. (T. P. Hughes, 2003)

Throughout the world, coral reefs have died off due to a chemical process known as bleaching. NOAA states in “What is coral bleaching?”, bleaching is the by-product of corals getting too warm; when corals get too warm they expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues, which causes them to turn completely white. Today, the remaining coral reefs are being stressed by the human inhabitants who exist upon the land masses from which these reefs neighbor; which, in turn, has caused these remaining reefs to approach extinction. Moreover, coral reefs are underwater barrier islands, and if they become extinct, Florida and any other landmass protected by a reef shall face the full brunt of every storm that comes their way. However, at the

Across the world’s beautiful oceans, there is a vast and marvelous selection of coral reefs all of which house copious species of coral. Many of these coral are the key element in a marine ecosystem by providing food, shelter and protection for the underwater community. However, this ecosystem is threatened due to the events of coral bleaching, as this event kills the coral and the creatures dependent on them. Without coral, these creatures will become more vulnerable and may be at risk of endangerment or extinction. Bleaching doesn’t just affect the ecosystem it can also cause a lot of damage to local towns and tourist points whose livelihoods depend on their beautiful reefs. Some have already taken action to help prevent bleaching, but what should we do? What can we do to prevent this phenomenon before it’s too late?

Perhaps one of the most significant anthropogenic factors contributing to reef system collapse is not directly attributable to the practices of people within the Bahamas, but the people of the world as a whole. As industry grows stronger, fossil fuels continue to burn at exceedingly high rates, consumption reaches all time highs, and unsustainable livestock practices continue to emit high levels of methane, climate change has caused an increase in temperature worldwide. This increase in temperature has been largely absorbed by the Earth’s oceans, causing them to rise in temperature as well. Since 1880, ocean temperature has increased by 0.65 to 1.06°C. In the next 50 years, it is predicted that ocean temperatures could reach an increase up

With nearly 5,000 square kilometers of reef area, Cuba’s coral reefs are considered among the most preserved and successfully managed coral reefs in the world. In a 2008 study by Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, Cuba was among the few Caribbean nations with over 30% coral cover. Three quarters of the Caribbean nations showed coral degradation of at least 50% from the average coral cover before 1984, making Cuba’s record of environmental protection particularly impressive.

The coral reef surveyors were instructed to find the best sites that they believed had the most living coral and were thought to be least affected by human activities. This would allow Hodgson to determine if human activities were having an appreciable effect on the supposed pristine coral reefs, which were distant from urban centers. The invertebrate survey was undertaken at two depth intervals of 3m and 10m. Four 0.5 m wide by 20 m long belts were placed on the coral reef. Over a period of 3-5 minutes the observers counted the number of invertebrates found on the belts. The coral survey was performed, by placing four 20 m long belts on the coral substrate. At 0.5 m intervals the substrate on which the belts were lying was examined and recorded.

From 1979 to 2006 there were at least six mass coral bleaching events, each of which were triggered by warming conditions, including higher water temperatures (Goldberg & Wilkinson, 2004). In 2005 the United States lost half of their Caribbean reefs due to one such bleaching event (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016). The color of corals typically comes from the zooxanthellae living within the coral tissues, and the white color that is associated with coral bleaching is due to the expelling of the zooxanthellae as water temperatures increase (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016). Therefore, as coral bleaching seems to be related to increases in water temperature, it is reasonable to predict that coral bleaching events could become more common as global climate change results in further ocean temperature increases. However, bleaching events do not kill corals, rather coral bleaching places the corals under high stress and makes them more vulnerable to other disturbances, which results in

Consisting of less than 1% of the world oceans, the coral reefs are ancient animals comprising of thin calcium carbonate deposits within the photic layer. Aside from its biologically diverse ecosystems, coral reefs are major source of food for millions and provides habitats and nursery areas for many marine organisms. Coral reefs also act as a physical buffer to protect the coastlines from tropical storms and erosion. In addition, many local communities rely on coral reefs to generate an income through activities such as fishing and diving. However, 75% of the coral reefs are under threat from induced impacts of humans and climate change (Burke, et al., 2011). This essay looks at the human impacts constantly being inflicted on coral reefs.

The deterioration of coral reefs is mainly linked to human activities – 88% of coral reefs are threatened through various reasons as