Coral Reef Research Paper

Why should anyone care about coral ecosystems? Not only do coral reefs provide humans with billions of dollars in environmental services such as tourism, food, but they are extremely beneficial to the economy. So what is a coral reef? According to the NOAA, a coral reef is a “A mound or ridge of living coral, coral skeletons, and calcium carbonate deposits from other organisms such as calcareous algae, mollusks, and protozoans.” (Noaa.gov) Many people don’t realize how important the health of coral reefs are to our society. For starters, close to 500 million people worldwide depend on reefs, while 30 million are virtually dependent. Coral reefs provide protection from storms, and provide habitat to new extremely important fish species. Moreover, they are a source of new medicines, along with providing jobs from fishing and tourism to an extremely struggling economy in todays society. …show more content…
An estimated 20 percent of the worlds reefs are damaged beyond recovery. Not only that, but half of the remaining reefs are potentially going to collapse very soon. Not only are there natural threats to the reefs, such as coral disease, tropical storms, and vessel damage, but there is a multitude of human activities that are causing damage such as climate change, land based pollution, and unsustainable fishing (Oceanservice.noaa.org). One example of this is in the coast of Angola. Due to the recent oil spills, the coral reef has been almost totally destroyed leading to an increased shoreline hazard and beach erosion rates (Coastalcare.org). Another issue is coral bleaching. Coral bleaching