The Human Impacts Of Coral Reefs Essay

The article “Coral Crusader: Racing Against Time To Predict the Fate of Corals in a Warming Ocean” was written by Evan Lubofsky and was published in Volume 51, Issue 2 of the journal Oceanus in 2016. I accessed the article through the University of West Florida’s library’s website by searching for the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database under the “A-Z Database List.” Once in the database, one can search the title of the article in the search box to locate it. Lubofsky intended this article to be read by the general public who are interested in how coral reefs can survive in warming oceans. The main purpose is to inform readers how a warmer ocean will have negative effects on coral reefs.

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

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.

The coral reef’s ecosystem are in major threat of the current bleaching events. Coral reefs are the main marine environment, which includes a variety of over 4,000 fish, and 800 different type of hard coral (“Corals”). Over 25 percent of marine animals are supported by the coral environment (“Coral Reefs”). The reefs are a key element of the ocean’s ecosystem (“Coral Reef Destruction”). Water temperatures are estimated to keep rising in the decades to come, which intensifies coral bleaching and other problems like black band disease, and white plague. These illnesses cause a majority of the coral to die, which will then lead to their ecosystem to plummet (“Global Warming”). Research as estimated that one to eight million organisms are yet unknown to scientists

These increasing ocean temperatures, which result in global warming, are mostly due to the amount of CO2 released in the air, therefore threatening the existence of the coral reef systems (Cole, Pratchett and Jones). The reduction of the coral reef ecosystems are attributed to the climate induced bleaching from the past decade. The loss of coral reef environments has direct affects to the habitat of an organism within the reefs (Cole, Pratchett and Jones), leading to a decrease in biodiversity (Coker, Pratchett and Munday).

Coral reefs have been called the rainforests of the ocean and are one of the most diverse and important ecosystems on the planet. This paper will explore how global warming has effected these fragile ecosystems. It will focus on the impact of increasing ocean temperatures on coral reefs.

"Coral reefs… are fragile structures living within a narrow range of temperature, clarity, salinity and chemistry. Even a slight increase in ocean temperature, or increased CO2… can cause stresses such as bleaching… These stresses slow the rate of growth of the corrals… With some 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs now losing productivity, it’s becoming a global crisis and a scientific mystery."

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.

Corals build colonies that secrete calcium carbonate to form ocean reefs. When they're healthy, coral reefs provide shelter and food for animals all along the food chain, including the top: us. Across the planet, half a billion people rely, directly and indirectly, on corals for their living. That's why what happens to the 9,000-year-old Great Barrier Reef, as well as to other reefs worldwide, is critical. The floods in Queensland have hurt the Great Barrier Reef by funnelling into the ocean vast plumes of freshwater and agricultural runoff that could severely damage the coral. Besides the extreme rain that sparked the floods, rising ocean temperatures, changes to the ocean's chemistry and the global trade in natural resources — all symptoms of our fossil-fuel economy — are waging a multiform war on the marine

Currently due to CO2 emissions changing the waters pH and climate, change warming up the water coral bleaching is occurring. This is when zooxanthellae are release from the symbiotic relationship with coral leading to the death of the coral.

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.

The article talks about how climate change has affected coral reefs over the past several years. Kim Cobb who is a marine scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology said that climate change has damaged the coral, the entire reef is covered with red-brown fuzz and algae had grown over the dead coral during his last dive in the deep waters of Kiritimati Island. According to the article, Scientists believe that the damages of coral reefs are caused by the mass bleaching of coral reefs around the world, heat stress from multiple severe weather events like El Nino and climate change. As a result, more than a third of Earth’s coral reefs are threatened and many may not recover.

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

Human impact has a major influence on the coral reefs. The biggest threat is pollution and construction. As many as 2.5 billion people reside within 60 miles off of an oceans coast, and as much as 80-90% of the waste from Southeast Asia, Pacific, and Caribbean gets deposited into the ocean. Many coastal industries/development have been dumping their wastes into our oceans because it is cheaper in the short run. In addition, many construction sites have sediment runoff from rainfall where unwanted chemicals flow into our ocean waters. This causes increase levels of toxins, and spikes of the pH

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.