Coral Reefs And Natural Disasters

Global temperatures are steadily rising due to anthropogenic causes; this increase in temperature is causing changes to ocean properties that can impact the organisms that call this medium their home. One of the most evident impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans is the resulting raise in ocean surface temperatures. Rising ocean temperatures can directly affect biogenic reef building organisms like corals which produce some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems in the world. Previous studies within this field have determined that climate change is a notable stressor for these corals causing large scale bleaching events; where they release their photosynthetic symbionts. Once the symbionts of these organisms are released corals begin to starve and ultimately die resulting in

The ocean is two-thirds of our planet a vast blue landscape home to many biomes which according to Boyce Thorne-Miller “(ecosystem types) corresponding to sets of environmental conditions that vary with depth, latitude, and longitude” (16). However, the ocean and its biomes is under attack from the changing environment. We can see this through coral reef biomes as they make their home near the shores. Through coral reefs we can view the effects that these changes have on the ocean through how the coral reef biome is affected. Humans are a danger to the coral reefs and the wildlife that resides in the biome. The pollution being released into the environment is poisoning the coral and causes death and malformation to the wildlife. The ocean is changing due to global warming which is causing a change in the temperature and rising water levels leading to a change in the stabile areas coral can survive. The increasing acidification of the ocean is causing the coral reefs to die. I will be looking at the effects these issues cause to coral reefs biomes and the ocean to see the similarities in how they affect both.

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 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.

Irreversible destruction is occurring to our coral reef system. The majority of this destruction is caused by the human race. It is important that the people of the world come together to determine how to keep our precious resources in tact for future generations.

In the NewsEla article called, Climate change in Hawaii and U.S. tropical islands, it talks about how climate change is affecting a lot of smaller islands such as, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. Climate change is affecting the rise of sea levels, ecosystems, and also people.

The effects of climate change on the Hawaiian Islands are as worse as global warming. Climate change makes tropical storms worse which is a very big threat to our islands, because we are isolated from the mainland. With this comes along the green house gases.

Developing organizations, such as The Ocean Agency and the Coral Restoration Foundation, have been raising concern in efforts to conserve and furthermore sustain aquatic life and the ecosystem in which they inhabit. These unique fish, found living and populating among the coral reef, face a level of degradation and life threatening obstacles. The coral reef acts as a home to more than a quarter of the know fish species, where their population and species have been widely studied. This ecosystem is a beautiful representation of life which supports, and is supported by other neighboring ecosystems; embodying a significance as the leading consumer item for those who live along the reefs. Their importance to our planets collective ecosystem is not fully understood, due to the way these ecosystems are interconnected to one another, but nevertheless illustrates an example of a struggling life which may provide problems for both terrestrial and aquatic life-forms. Aside from the human dependency, being that “More than 450 million people live within 60 kilometers of coral reefs, with the majority directly or

Devastating natural disasters happen all the time take Hurricane, Katrina for example. An increase in climate change causes the seas to also adjust in temperature and could lead to more tropical storms. “The oceans have absorbed much of the increased heat, with the top 700 meters of ocean showing warming of .302F since 1969” (Shaftel 8). Extreme climate change has been rapidly changing our environment and causes an increase of severe weather. “Most of the Earth warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years” (Shaftel 7). “Global sea level rose about 17 cm in the last century. The rate in the last decade is nearly double that of the last century” (Shaftel 6). “Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers of ice

Scenario: You are marine biologist presenting a seminar titled ‘coral reefs under threat’, which discusses human impact on reef systems. A sceptical member of the audience questions whether there is sufficient evidence to support your claims, and goes on to state that maybe the issues regarding coral reefs have simply been exaggerated by the media, environmentalists and scientists.

Mark Boyce: “Fishes as top-down and bottom-up drivers of coral reef community dynamics” -April 6, 2016

Climate change can affect negatively the economy of an entire nation in so many ways. Rising sea levels and warmer oceans are what makes storms more destructives. Which mean that the more destructive a storm is the most the government would have to spend money trying to fix the disasters that comes with it. When a strong hurricane make landfall, it destroyed everything that it on its way. It destroys houses, roads, bridges, railroad track, airports runways, power lines, dam, levees, and seawalls. All this cost money, and time that the government and the public could’ve avoid if they listen to what the experts said. One probe that one hurricane can affect the economy of a country is the latest hurricane that happened in Puerto Rico, Virgin Island, and Florida, which happens to be part of the United States. Hurricane Maria cause so many damage to the Island of Puerto Rico. A librarian at the university of Puerto Rico describes the condition of the island after it was hit saying 80 percent of the island was without power. Houses, bridges were destroyed, people don’t have enough food to eat, there is not enough drinking water. It’s not clear yet how much it would cost to rebuild the island but there’s been an estimated of 95 billion. This show that if the government priories climate change, things like this would happen less often.

However, many fisherman are unable to catch as many fish as they used to, so they are increasingly using cyanide and dynamite in fishing, which further degrades the coral reef ecosystem.[6] This perpetuation of bad habits simply leads to the further decline of coral reefs and therefore perpetuating the problem. One solution to stopping this cycle is to educate the local community about why conservation of marine spaces that include coral reefs is important.[7] Once the local communities understand the personal stakes at risk then they will actually fight to preserve the reefs. Conserving coral reefs has many economic, social, and ecological benefits, not only for the people who live on these islands, but for people throughout the world as well.

The effects of global warming touch every human, animal, plant, ocean, landmass, and atmosphere level on this planet. The numerous effects of global warming are mixes of "good" and "bad" results, depending on how your definition of "good" results and "bad" results are. A "good" effect, a person could say, would be for regions with normally cold temperatures to receive warmer temperatures for their normal. Yet, there are more "bad" effects that seem to out weight the "good" effects. Some of the effects would include increases of flooding, severe storm systems, and rising sea-levels. One major consequence would be an increase of temperature globally. This would

Seagrasses are essential primary producers that provide habitat and refuge to fauna. Anthropogenic influences have caused global loss of seagrasses and a major contributor is eutrophication, which increases phytoplankton and algal populations, reduces light availability, and causes daily hypoxic conditions. Eutrophication is commonly linked to declines in temperate conditions and is more difficult to link to tropical systems since decreases are typically related to physical damage and diminishing light conditions from runoff. Climate change, herbivore declines, disease and overfishing, along with anthropogenic impacts from coastal development, run-off, eutrophication, and aquaculture have caused declines in coral reefs and mangrove systems. These three systems are interconnected and when one system is impacted, secondary impacts are observed in the other systems; coastal ecosystems will be adversely effected and decline. Additional research, conservation, and ways to reduce anthropogenic impacts have been discussed. Restoration is used to reverse habitat loss, although success is varied. Coastal systems and the biological and ecosystem services they provide, may take decades to establish. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are instituted to protect systems from further degradation, restore communities and allow them to flourish naturally. However, local residents are affected by MPAs and may become displaced, have restriction placed on their livelihood, or elimination of their