The Great Barrier Reef has always been listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World due to its once natural beauty and sheer scope. Located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, the reef is the largest of its kind. In a graphic published on website The Conversation, the reef is said to contain an estimated 2,900 individual reefs spread over an area of about 133,000 square miles or 344,400 square kilometers (Pressey, Grech, Brodie, Day). It is estimated that the reef contains six hundred distinct types of hard and soft corals, shelters one hundred and thirty-three varieties of rays and sharks, and is home to 1,625 species of fish (Pressey, Grech, Brodie, Day). There is only one problem however, the Great Barrier Reef is dying. The
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While the destruction of coral reefs can also be attributed to large, destructive weather events such as cyclones, as well as the increased prevalence of destructive invasive species, the chief perpetrator of the death of millions of corals everywhere is coral bleaching. To better grasp the sheer complexity of this issue, it is necessary to break it down into the following four segments: the impact bleaching has on coastal human communities, the impact bleaching has on marine life, the science behind the entire process of coral bleaching, and what the causes of coral bleaching are.
The recorded history of mass coral bleaching is a relatively short one due to the lack of data on record. It was only after the mass bleaching event that affected the Great Barrier Reef in 1981/82 that scientists began to uncover the correlation between ocean temperature and bleaching (Veron). After this event, six more mass bleaching events occurred, with the most notorious taking place in the years 1997/98 and 2001/02 (Veron). The 1997/98 event received heightened attention due to how “extraordinarily …show more content…
On the website titled Think Progress, it is written that a report published by the journal Nature Communications has found that, due to their structure, coral reefs help reduce wave energy by an estimated ninety-seven percent as well as reducing wave height by eighty-four percent, meaning waves that hit the shore are almost always much calmer than they would be without the reefs in their way (Valentine). According to the same report, one-hundred and ninety-seven million people are protected by coral reefs worldwide, meaning it would be in humanity’s favor to protect reefs to protect its own interests (Valentine). Reefs are also relied upon as a source of food for most coastal human settlements due to the considerable number of marine creatures that inhabit them. With an abundance of fish inhabiting these reefs, human coastal settlements can feed upon these fish instead of making the often long and tedious journey inland to find other sources of food. Reefs also contribute a large part to these coastal communities’ economies through the likes of ecotourism. Ecotourism is tourism directed toward natural environments that often tend to be at risk of degradation with the aim of bringing awareness to the problem of environmental destruction, in the hopes of spurring the conservation of these environments. Coral reefs
While the destruction of coral reefs can also be attributed to large, destructive weather events such as cyclones, as well as the increased prevalence of destructive invasive species, the chief perpetrator of the death of millions of corals everywhere is coral bleaching. To better grasp the sheer complexity of this issue, it is necessary to break it down into the following four segments: the impact bleaching has on coastal human communities, the impact bleaching has on marine life, the science behind the entire process of coral bleaching, and what the causes of coral bleaching are.
The recorded history of mass coral bleaching is a relatively short one due to the lack of data on record. It was only after the mass bleaching event that affected the Great Barrier Reef in 1981/82 that scientists began to uncover the correlation between ocean temperature and bleaching (Veron). After this event, six more mass bleaching events occurred, with the most notorious taking place in the years 1997/98 and 2001/02 (Veron). The 1997/98 event received heightened attention due to how “extraordinarily …show more content…
On the website titled Think Progress, it is written that a report published by the journal Nature Communications has found that, due to their structure, coral reefs help reduce wave energy by an estimated ninety-seven percent as well as reducing wave height by eighty-four percent, meaning waves that hit the shore are almost always much calmer than they would be without the reefs in their way (Valentine). According to the same report, one-hundred and ninety-seven million people are protected by coral reefs worldwide, meaning it would be in humanity’s favor to protect reefs to protect its own interests (Valentine). Reefs are also relied upon as a source of food for most coastal human settlements due to the considerable number of marine creatures that inhabit them. With an abundance of fish inhabiting these reefs, human coastal settlements can feed upon these fish instead of making the often long and tedious journey inland to find other sources of food. Reefs also contribute a large part to these coastal communities’ economies through the likes of ecotourism. Ecotourism is tourism directed toward natural environments that often tend to be at risk of degradation with the aim of bringing awareness to the problem of environmental destruction, in the hopes of spurring the conservation of these environments. Coral reefs