Impact Of Bleaching: The Great Barrier Reef In Australia

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

In the past two years, the bleachings of 2016 and 2017 have hit the Great Barrier Reef, and once again they have done horrific damage. Kerry states that the constant bleaching is concerning for two reasons: the 12 month gap between the two bleachings is too short for any coral recovery and last years bleaching was most severe in the northern part of the reef. Kerry states that last year, the temperature peak in March causes 67% of the corals to die in a 700 km section in the northern part of the Barrier Reef. This is the greatest loss of corals ever recorded in history and it’s still too early to tell if the corals will make it after this years bleaching. Kerry goes on to say that most of the bleached corals in the southern part of the reef have regained their color, meaning they thankfully survived. Kerry goes on to say there are four huge factors in the geographic patterns of the bleachings. He then goes on to give the reasons for the south surviving. To sum them up, it’s simply because the sea temperatures were close to normal during the bleachings of 2016 and 2017 in the south, the rainfall from El Nino coincided with the heat waves in 2016, and two local weather events saved the south from bleaching. Kerry closes the article by concluding that the bleachings from this year and last year will continue to unfold in the coming

The Barrier Reef is the largest reef in the world, and it is located in Australia. It is made up of different types of coral and fish, but sadly the reef is bleaching. Bleaching is the process of water temperatures getting too warm and as a result coral reefs can bleach. When water gets too warm, corals will get rid of the algae living inside their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. Although, when coral reefs turn white this does not mean that they are dead, coral reefs can actually survive a bleaching event. It just means that the coral is under a lot of stress and

In 1980, NOAA’s marine biologist started noticing the coral bleaching. There has been three important coral reef bleaching events in the history. The first global bleaching event “El Niño” was in 1998, it was a “huge underwater heatwave killed 16% of the corals on reefs around the world” . The second bleaching event was in 2010 and was called La Niña. This event affected especially areas near Palau and Micronesia in the Pacific. In October of 2015, NOAA announced the third global bleaching event in which has already become the longest event recorded, affecting coral reefs for consecutive years.

The bleaching of coral reefs is when warm water forces algae to leave the reef. Once the algae disappear, the coral goes from a vibrant color to a pale white. As one marine biologist said, “You go from a vibrant, three-dimensional structure teeming with life, teeming with color, to a flat pavement...” This bleaching makes the coral more vulnerable to diseases and a greater risk of death. The biggest bleaching events to have occurred in

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

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 next threat that the reef is facing due to climate changes in the water.

Unfortunately, the most diverse ecosystem on the planet has been ravaged by the effects of climate change. Record breaking levels of coral bleaching continue to deteriorate the Great Barrier Reef due to pesticides and nutrients flowing into the water

By not allowing the fertilizer to get to the reef, bleaching would be significantly slowed. On the other hand, if “bleaching events are moving around the [Great Barrier Reef] system on an annual basis, it does really undermine any potential resilience through connectivity between neighbouring reefs” (David Sugget). In other words, if we do not slow the frequent bleachings, the recovery and survival of the reefs is at a severe jeopardy. When taking the thousands of species that call the Great Barrier Reef home into consideration, it is alarming that we should not try to preserve its spectacular biodiversity. Frighteningly, the reef “will never ever again be as great as it used to be -- at least not in our lifetimes” (C. Mark Eakin). The damage that it has endured has already been too extreme; it’s already tunneling towards its destruction. It is the moral obligation of the Australian government to preserve what remains of the life in the region, for the pure reason of saving an

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

Bleaching has been observed on the Great Barrier Reef since 1982, with rigorous bleaching events occurring in the summers of 1998, 2002 and 2006. Major bleaching events in Southern Hemisphere reefs (Pacific and Indian Oceans) incline

Whenever someone hear about bleaching, they automatically think about this strong potent chemical used for clothing to make it stain-free, the pungent smell when they open the door to a pool, or when someone plans on dyeing their hair to a lighter color. Bleaching is very useful for humans, but is it good for the environment? Has anyone heard of coral bleaching? Coral bleaching has nothing to do with chemicals at all, in fact it is called coral bleaching because when coral is bleached, it becomes white like when a t-shirt is bleached (though too much bleach can eat a hole). Coral bleaching has been a problem these past few years on the East coast of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It has been declining in its beautiful

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the world’s largest coral reef system extends across 2,300 kilometres just off the north-east coast of Australia. The bio-diverse natural reef is the largest living structure on the planet, so big it is visible from space (Great Barrier Reef Foundation, 2017). Unfortunately, the Great Barrier Reef is under threat. There are several elements influencing the rapid decline in the coral ecosystems health. This qualitative study will explore the affects coral bleaching is having on the coral ecosystem of The Great Barrier

There are many activities that humans do that impact the Pacific Ocean. Some of these activities include humans polluting and burning fossil fuels; this produces changes in global temperatures which is causing ocean temperatures to rise. As a result of global warming and pollution, this has caused coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is a destructive and stressful force on coral reefs where the warm water makes corals expel zooxanthellae (algae) living in their tissues causing the corals to turn a hue ghostly white. This is very unhealthy for the corals because they’re under stress and are subject to death. As a result of coral bleaching, the Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean is under a lot of stress and more than 4,600 square miles of the