Coral Bleaching Essay

1005 Words3 Pages

Destiny Berrios
Candidate #
Centre # US156 Syllabus code 8291
Component 3
Environmental Management
Coral bleaching happens when the coral is stressed due to the changes in its environmental conditions for example, nutrients, temperature, or light. They then get rid of the symbiotic algae that resides in their body’s tissues, turning them completely white and making them vulnerable to outside threats. Events of coral bleaching are mainly due to warm water temperatures; when the corals environment becomes too warm they expel the zooxanthellae (algae) that reside in their tissues thus causing the change of the corals color to become white. However, when coral bleaches that does not mean it is dead, corals can live through a bleaching event, …show more content…

Scientific evidence has recently been indicating that Earth's ocean and atmosphere are becoming warmer, and its these changes that are happening because of the greenhouse gases that come from daily human activities. (US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2015)
As the temperatures continue to rise, there will continue to be more and more coral bleaching events with even greater devastation and there may also be an increase in infectious disease outbreaks. Furthermore, carbon dioxide that the ocean absorbs from the earth’s atmosphere has started to reduce calcification rates in reef-associated as well as reef-building organisms by changing the chemistry of the seawater through decreases in pH levels. (US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2015)
Climate change is also going to affect the coral reef ecosystems, changes to the frequency and intensity of tropical storms, altered ocean circulation patterns, and through sea level rise. When put together, these impacts can drastically change the ecosystem functions, along with the services and goods that the coral reef ecosystems continuously provide to everyone around the world. (US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration …show more content…

Many communities depend on fishing in coral reefs, but when people overfish it can exhaust key species in the coral reefs and damage the corals habitat. (US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2015) In a most recent event however, coral spawning has begun, this is where the colonies reproduce, it begins after a full moon which queens land, Australia had one on November 4th. Coral spawning is dependent on the temperature of the water, it must be warm enough to allow for adult corals to mature. This event could prove to be quite beneficial to the great barrier reef in helping to revive itself form the enormous amounts of coral bleaching it has received. ("CNN 10 - November 14, 2017"

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