World Most Endangered Ecosystems

Coral Reefs One of the world’s most species rich and bio diverse ecosystems are the tropical coral reefs. Emmysarus, a staff writer/ blogger for Scribol stated in their article “The World’s Most Endangered Ecosystems: Coral Reefs, “Unfortunately, areas which are home to the richest biodiversity often suffer from the greatest amount of damage and disruption”. These “rainforests of the sea” are home to thousands of species of fish and invertebrates that live among the hundreds of different and diverse kinds of these living builders. Coral reefs also provide multiple ecosystem services including wave and storm protection, and provide us with food and medicine. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administraton (NOAA) estimated the economic value …show more content…
Our impacts, starting with pollution, which leads to the emission of greenhouse gases, which leads to irregular climate change and increased temperatures. This has already been the cause of mass coral bleaching and it is only predicted to worsen. Coastal building increases the occurrence of nutrient run-off from construction and chemicals and other toxins. The increased interest in the exotic pet trade damages the coral reefs when trappers usually are careless and will trample or bang on the coral with sticks to get the fish to come out. Over fishing disrupts the balance of this ecosystem and the food chain can be impaired as well. Chemicals used in unsafe fishing practices like cyanide fishing. Dynamite fishing also stresses the corals significantly as well as bottom trawling. Coal mining also depletes the coral population. Besides being plucked to serve as souvenirs or pets, corals can also be mined for use in bricks and cement in new buildings. These irresponsible and ignorant practices must be stopped in order to save this very valuable ecosystem. Everything we do to disrupt the environments natural cycles affects us eventually in one way or another and losing our coral reefs would be …show more content…
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network predicts that many of the remaining reefs will disappear in the next 40 years if the current emissions trend continues. If we don’t take action we could lose it all, literally. “If, and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world’s marine biodiversity. Then there is a domino effect, as reefs fail so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes extinct.” This was written by Charlie Vernon for The Guardian in his article “ How global warming sealed the fate of the world’s coral reefs”. This quote caught my attention the most out of all the statistics and other scientific