Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Park

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

Glover’s Reef is a part of the second largest reef system in the world, the Belize Reef. In recent years, mostly due to tourism growth and the respective development for the tourists, ocean pollution has damaged many of species that live in Belize Reef. While the government has imposed a national reservation on the area that protects it from human destruction, it simply has not had the effect expected. On the Glover Reef, a research facility was created to gain a better understand of coral in the area and the best way to protect it. The hopeful future is that the research project gives scientist insight on how to protect the entirety of the Belize Barrier Reef System.

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

Global warming and climate change is the biggest threat the reef is having to face. Global warming is an effect of pollution caused by humans. Rapid urban development causes an increase ic carbon emissions which leads to an increase in greenhouse gases. A build-up of these gases cause temperatures to rise which will also increase the ocean temperature. This will have a negative affect on coral and put them under stress because they need a stable climate to thrive. During times of stress algae called zooxanthellae (gives coral vibrant colors) is expelled leaving the coral bleached white. This is called coral bleaching (Smithsonian). There have been two mass coral bleaching events in 1998 and 2002 (Great Barrier Reef). But, scientists anounce that these events aren’t over with yet. In fact, they will start to become more common with the rise of oean temperatures. Scientists are predicting that the biggest coral bleaching event yet will take place in the next few months (Smithsonian). Pollution and waste are also big factors in the decline of the reef. Not only do they affect the Great Barrier Reef, but many other ecosystems as well. Eight percent of the coastline along the Great Barrier Reef is used for cattle grazing or crop growing. Fertilisers, pesticides, and animal waste are all things that farms either use or produce and

Humans can also help reduce coral bleaching by reducing pollution, protecting food webs, and managing key functional groups: reef constructers, herbivores and bioeroders. Strong international policies should be passed on the reduction rate of global warming. Research experiments, samples and modeling needs to be

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.

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

Many people have gone scuba diving at some point in their lifetime, even going out to some of the world's most famous and beautiful coral reefs such as the Great Barrier reef or the Belize Barrier reef. But doing so does more harm than good, adding on to reasons for their decline. When doing recreational activities like these many touch coral reefs which can devastate and eventually kill an entire colony. In addition, when any type of boat is above a coral reef the harm done can be monumental, as boat groundings and damage from anchors can cause the breaking of the coral reefs, scraping, and there is always the potential for a accidental oil spill which can permanently kill coral reefs. Furthermore, coral reefs are being over exploited for a number of reasons. Coral mining is used to obtain coral to sell as jewelry, medicine, and some construction materials. But the methods for removing coral are disastrous as they use mining blasts which could lead to a coral reefs death. In addition, our own fishing markets are over fishing and have used incredibly harmful ways to catch the most fish in one go possible. This has the same effects as coral mining because the coral reefs have the potential to deteriorate, taking an incredibly long time to regenerate, or even cause its death. Although, coral reefs have been most gravely impacted by pollution and the detrimental effects of global warming. Due to a rise in ocean pollution, coral reefs can be impacted in a number of ways. One being the fact that it can cause disease to appear on the coral, but also lengthen the reproduction of coral. Due to plastics large numbers with in the ocean it can also cause the death of numerous marine organisms and other reef species. Furthermore, coral reefs are greatly impacted by climate change, which is

Tourism has a large impact on the reef system at Lady Musgrave Island with the millions of people who have and will visit the island at one point in their life. These results did not give an accurate picture as there were many other parts of the reef that weren’t included in these results. Due to this, there could have been more coral impacts or more animals surrounding the reef in other areas that were not included in these results collected. Therefore, the reef ecosystem creates many positive effects for humans and animals alike. However, it can be ruined easily with a simple touch or by leaving waste behind that could damage the reef or hurt the animals living in that

Sadly, this gorgeous reef is slowly being destroyed by human faults (Hennessy). Such faults are carelessness like walking on the coral without a care, dropping anchors on the coral, dragging diving gear over them, breaking them and taking them home as souvenirs and knocking and grounding boats on them. Tourism has also created a negative impact; the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most popular attractions in the modern world. The reef is so fragile that by merely walking on a small part or driving a boat too close can destroy thousands of corals. Also things like pollution such as sewerage, oil spills, fertilizers and pesticides damage the reef, cause sevre damge to the reef as they spread though the water and kill off living organisms. These errors place Great Barrier Reef’s environment at a dangerous risk, affecting the overall species and beauty within it. With all of these specific conditions, we can clearly see that human actions can pose great threats to the coral reefs. Coral reefs live in very precise, fragile and balanced marine environments, therefore even the slightest change can have a huge impact on an entire coral ecosystem. These reefs are able to endure many natural stresses by adjusting, however the present human pressures are destroying the reefs such that they cannot recover.

The Great Barrier Reef is the most substantial living structure on Earth; this complex aquatic system houses around 1,500 different species of fish. Coral polyps living in the GBR released their algae as water approached 88°F, resulting in the coral becoming white. These vast bleaching events are becoming increasingly critical, lasting longer, and are occurring closer together; this is undoubtedly tied to climate change. This bleaching process is typically due to pollutants, an overabundance of sunlight, or very hot waters driving corals to eject algae. This process doesn't kill corals instantly. In fact, if conditions improve, algae can re-colonize corals and recoup. Without the algae (the coral’s main source of food), however, corals become

The most beautiful ecosystem, coral reefs, are dying. Fortunately, there are policies in place to protect our reefs like the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. However, these polices alone aren’t enough to protect and restore our reef ecosystems. I propose that to preserve the reefs, we increase our protection by growing the amount of National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), encouraging and funding scientific research, improving partnerships, and enhancing the public education and involvement. This can be accomplished in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) through continuation and improvement of established programs within the United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Coral bleaching is one of the visual effect of climate change. Caused by the stress put on the coral because of the temperature of the water becoming warmer. This major effect of climate change could lead to the death of the Coral. This has been especially noticed on the Great Barrier Reef. Only recently the earth has witnessed severe coral bleaching episodes all around the world.

Coral is the building block for a niche underwater ecosystem that consists of diverse sea life. These ecosystems are known as coral reefs and are named so due to the limestone (calcium carbonate) that is secreted by the coral lifeform. (Baker, Glynn and Riegal 2008) Coral reefs are host to such a diverse population of sea life, some of which may be endemic to the reef, that the destruction of them can cause large scale damage to populations. When under a lot of stress, the vibrant colours that are iconic to coral start to fade, thus the term coral bleaching. (Baker, Glynn and Riegal 2008) If the coral is left like this and its stressful conditions disappear it will eventually return to its vibrant colour, unfortunately if the stressor continues the coral will die. (Baker, Glynn and Riegal 2008) Reef building occurs over hundreds of years which makes the large scale coral bleaching all the more impactful on the underwater ecosystems. Bleaching events are so severe that an entire coral reef can die off from just 1 mass event. (Baker, Glynn and Riegal 2008)

Within the past year a huge catastrophe has happened in the Maldivian reef. Due to increasing temperatures the colorful and beautiful reefs have turned gray and dead. This is not only happening here though, it is a world-wide problem. Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species as well has a half a billion people. In the last thirty years the world has lost half of them. Losing our coral reefs is not a problem that we need to worry about one hundred years from now it is a problem the world is facing today.