Caroline Thummel
Mr. Smalley
Honors Biology, Hour 5
7 May 2018
Coral in Crisis
Imagine a world where vibrant coral spans vast areas of the ocean floor. The ocean floor creates vivid mosaic paintings with the coral’s bright colors of orange and blue tinted with yellow. Now imagine that, those vibrant colors are delicate coral that provide homes to thousands of small sea creatures. Soft sand particles brush up gracefully against the coral, revealing a colorful fish enjoying its morning meal. Now imagine a stark change: the coral is turned an ugly chalky colorless white. The colorful fish returns home only to see its captivating home destroyed. It begins to search in desperation for a new home, but the farther it searches the more it seems to find the dreadful color white. The fish swims for days on end, searching for anywhere to hide before a predator comes, but it's too late. The chalky whiteness invading the once colorful reef is called coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity today. Coral bleaching is caused when the temperature of the ocean changes two degrees fahrenheit or higher. Once the temperature changes, the coral become stressed and release algae that cause their beautiful assortment of colors to turn completely white. It may not seem like it, but coral is greatly needed in our environment and our society today. Coral reefs have developed antibiotics for certain medical conditions like arthritis. In previous years, blue-green algae has treated lung cancer and tumors. The tragic loss of coral reefs will result in the extinction of useful medicines that treat life threatening diseases. Not only do coral reefs provide medicine, they also provide many people with everyday necessities. For instance, “Coral reefs provide food for about 500 million people across the globe, including 30 million people who are almost completely dependent on reefs and associated coral resources” (GALE). Almost ten percent of the world’s population depends on coral reefs to survive. Coral reefs are critical to help prevent natural disasters and provide habitats for marine life. For example, coral reefs help prevent erosion and flooding; they also break waves during heavy storms. Without coral reefs preventing these natural disasters, the government would have to spend billions of dollars building coastal defences. Also, a quarter of the marine life depend on coral reefs for home. The causes of this rapidly spreading coral bleaching are global warming, dead zones, and different types of pollution. These three causes can be lessened or prevented by action from humans.
Global warming causes the temperature in the ocean to increase, which then causes the coral’s algae—the organism that provides energy and color to the coral—to release. The result is a white chalky color. Global warming has also sped up the rate at which coral bleaching occurs. For instance, “In the early 1980s, bleaching episodes would happen at a rate of once every 25 to 30 year. As of 2016, they now are happening just under once every six years, the study found” (Borenstein). After coral bleaching takes place, it takes about 10 years or more for the coral to recover back to its normal state. However, because of global warming there has been an increasing number of coral deaths because the coral cannot recover fast enough before the next episode of bleaching occurs. Along with the increasing speed of bleaching caused by global warming, global warming also creates more consistently warmer water temperatures overtime (see figure 1). A great example of this is the Great Barrier Reef, Global warming was not as big of a problem around the 1900s, but around the year 2000 changes in water temperatures around the Great Barrier Reef increased dramatically, resulting in more rapid and more frequent bleaching of coral. If global warming does not stop, then we will lose almost all of our coral reefs by 2050.
Hypoxic zones, also known as dead zones, are areas in the ocean with low oxygen in the water. When a freshwater source pools into a saltwater source it causes lower oxygen levels in certain spots of the ocean. If fish or coral are in a dead zone, there is a higher chance of them dying because of the lack of oxygen. An example of a dead zone that occurs annually consists at the intersection of the Mississippi River and the Gulf Of Mexico. Each summer, the Mississippi River creates a dead zone in the Gulf Of Mexico when sewage pours into the gulf, causing the algae in the coral to bloom and absorb the oxygen. As a result, the marine life living in that spot completely die off (see figure 2). Dead zones have become more common around the world and they are one of the reasons why coral bleaching occurs. As a matter of fact, some areas inhabited by this low oxygen environment occupy square mileage greater than the area of the continent of Africa.
Along with dead zones, pollution affects the survival of coral reefs in many different ways. When pollution interacts with the coral reefs it makes them susceptible to coral bleaching because pollution speeds the growth of damaging algae and may cause diseases (figure 3). “The likelihood of disease increases from 4 percent to 89 percent when corals are in contact with plastic” (Joyce). Pollution tears open the skins of the coral, causing many diseases to occur. Sunscreen is the deadliest form of pollution to the coral reefs. A study was released two years ago on how sunscreen is bleaching precious coral reefs. According to NPR, “the chemicals in even one drop of sunscreen are enough to damage fragile coral reef systems” (NPR). One chemical in particular, named oxybenzone, is harming the reefs. When humans rinse off their sunscreen in the shower, the sunscreen chemicals travel to rivers that lead to ocean. Once the chemical reaches an ocean it travels down to the coral reefs, attaches to them, and turns them white.
Without solutions to these problems, all coral reefs will die off. The first solution introduces saving the coral reefs with new, advanced technology. Scientists have chosen to make artificial reefs by putting metal frames under the water where an electrical current takes minerals out of the water and attaches the minerals to the frame. Then, divers take the coral reefs that have been bleached and place them onto the metal frames. Shockingly, the coral reefs “heal up to 20 times faster and [have] up to 50 times more chance of survival” (Willlmott). The key to successfully implementing artificial reefs is catching the coral bleaching early enough before the reefs die. This is the best solution because it does not put other marine animals in danger, is cost effective, and rapidly improves the coral reefs’ condition. Even if you don’t live by coral reefs, there are still ways you can help this serious matter. For example, you can reduce global warming by using energy-efficient appliances and limiting your gasoline consumption. Another way you can help prevent coral bleaching is to conserve as much as water as possible. Running water causes more runoff to the ocean and results in more dead zone areas. Lastly, you can wear sunscreen that contains all natural mineral—based ingredients that prevent harm to reefs. Overall, coral bleaching is a major problem in our world today caused mainly by human activities that increase global warming, dead zones, and pollution. If humans do not take responsibility for the problems they have caused, we will lose important medicines, marine life, brilliantly beautiful coral, and much more that is necessary to our survival in society today.