The Benefits Of Biorock : Saving The Coral Reefs

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.

“Since the beginning of the industrial era, the ocean has absorbed some 525 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, presently around 22 million tons per day” (Ocean Portal, n.d). This number is expected to increase forevermore as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase and the effects of Climate Change worsen. At first, the idea of our oceans absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere may sound great, however, scientists have been quick to learn otherwise. High concentrations of carbon dioxide in oceans can have detrimental effects on the ocean chemistry and marine ecosystems (Hardt; Safina, 2008). Marine ecosystems are greatly complex and depend on every marine organism to function properly, any change can put the whole ecosystem at risk. For example, the increase of carbon dioxide in our oceans is responsible for the dissolving of “brittle star” skeletal parts, which has in effect caused food scarcity for many fish, crabs, shrimp, and other starfish (Leu, 2013). Furthermore, these marine ecosystems are very important to humans- being the primary food source for millions around the world and having an economic market worth trillions of dollars (Hardt; Safina, 2008). Part of keeping these ecosystems safe is to understand how they work and how projected changes can harm marine organisms.

Over the years Carbon Dioxide has been significantly increasing from human activity. CO2 has a concentration of about 400 ppmv (parts per million volume). Its concentration in the atmosphere was about 280 ppmv before the Industrial Revolution, now it has increased immensely to about 380 ppmv in 2006. Many have said Carbon Dioxide has been the main reason or cause of global warming; saying that if we produce too much of this greenhouse gas it can create a global climate change. Even though carbon dioxide affects the temperature of the atmosphere it also affects the acidity of water specifically in the ocean.

The ocean is a very delicate ecosystem in which the slightest change of pH or chemical composition will result in devastating results. Between 25 and 40% of anthropogenic carbon emissions have entered the marine area since the industrial age (Sabine et

Ocean Acidification is a process that occurs everyday and majorly affects our planet, but most people don’t even realize it exists. Though it can technically be argued that Ocean Acidification has some benefits for the planet, most of the time the effects of this process are very poor and negatively affect the entire world around us. Human evolution has played a major role in contributing to Ocean Acidification. Whenever humans use energy we release Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere or also known as CO2. This can be in the form of burning fossil fuels from the ground or the removal of national forest by burning. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means whenever we can emit it in large quantities or unnatural amounts it can have negative effects on the atmosphere. These high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere result in climate change and more specifically Ocean Acidification. Ocean Acidification occurs when excess Carbon Dioxide is absorbed into the ocean. When this process takes place it can completely disturb the chemical balances of the water. For example, it can reduce pH levels, Biodiversity, and the abundance of calcifying species.

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

Phytoplankton play a key role in maintaining the stability of the marine environment by performing biochemical reactions, such as photosynthesis, which provide nutrients and oxygen to other marine organisms. They are also important for the success of coral reefs and calcite deposits throughout the water column. Increasing levels of inorganic CO2 will reduce calcification of ecologically important calcifying organisms such as corals and coccolithophores (Dedmer et al. 2013). Kim and colleagues (2013) advocate that changes in carbon chemistry will continue to cause levels of CO2 and HCO3- to rise, affecting photosynthesis and respiration.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, mankind has slowly increased the total greenhouse gas emissions that enter the atmosphere. Over time, this pollution began to add up. Now planet Earth is struggling to maintain its health with the combined forces of global warming and ocean acidification looking to bring demise. From all portions of the world, troubling changes are emerging in the chemistry of our oceans’ waters. The oceans takes in around a quarter of the Carbon Dioxide that mankind releases into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels rise, so do the

Especially in the last two hundred years, carbon dioxide has increased in the atmosphere. This is happened in effect of the constant burning of fossil fuels and land use change. In the ocean, carbon dioxide reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid.The ocean actually absorbs thirty percent of all of the carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere. When

Most of the CO2 that enters the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean, as close to a third of the CO2 produced from human activities since 1800 and approximately half produced by burning fossil fuels are consumed into the ocean (Sabine et al. 2004). Increased CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the main causes of our changing climate change (NOAA, 2011). Global ocean temperatures have risen by 0.74oC (1.3oF) since the late 19th century. With the increasing rate of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions have been predicted to rise to approximately 4.0oC (7.2oF) this century (NOAA, 2016). Just the tropical upper oceans alone have warmed more than 0.01oC per year over the past 50 years and the warming rate is still increasing (NOAA, 2010).

Since the industrial revolution, anthropogenic inputs of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere have increased dramatically. Concentrations in the atmosphere have risen 40% from 1750 to 2011, reaching record highs of 390.5 ppm (Stocker, et al., 2013). Due to this, the amount of dissolved CO2 in the oceans has also increased causing acidification of the oceans which can have several effects, mainly on calcifying organisms. Climate change has also influenced the stratification of the oceans due to density changing affecting nutrient distribution. So far, although a number of methods have been explored, there have been no solutions that don’t have their own issues.

The world’s oceans absorb around a quarter of emissions caused by human activities; the burning of fossil fuels, for example. This reduces the speed of climate change, and about 40% of this absorption happens in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds the Antarctic. Carbon dioxide gets soaked in from the air and is then released by the Ocean every year, but with a net uptake. It is the planet’s strongest ocean carbon sink. Earlier studies had suggested that the rising emissions caused by humans had caused over-saturation at the Southern Ocean during the 1980s, and researchers estimated that the efficiency of this body of water to absorb

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.

Coral Reefs have a huge role in our environment, even though they only make up less than one percent of the oceans' ecosystems. They provide shelter for twenty-five percent of marine species, protect shorelines, support fishing industries, provide money from tourism, and could help scientists discover the next, big, medical breakthrough. They are so biodiverse, they are referred to as ‘the Tropical Rainforests of the Oceans’. Coral reefs are found in shallow circumtropical waters along the shore of continents. Corals live in waters that have poor nutrition and they have certain tolerance levels to water temperature, salinity, UV radiation, opacity, and nutrient quantities.

An increased amount of acidification has disrupted the chemical balance in the ocean waters in the recent hundreds of years due to the high amount of burning fossil fuels. The Industrial Revolution was a pivotal moment for the chemical equilibrium in the ocean. During this time, scientists realized the prominent effects that the pollution of fossil fuels had on the atmosphere and, respectively, the oceans. Exhaustible fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil, and coal are being used by the human population, and it is releasing large amounts of Carbon Dioxide into the air (National Ocean Service). This in turn creates an atmosphere that is immensely concentrated in CO2; therefore, the ocean absorbs more of the CO2 in the air. According to Marah Hardt and Carl Safina from Yale Climate Connections, high concentrates of carbon dioxide in the ocean creates a PH balance that is very low causing the ocean to become very acidic. When carbon