Coral bleaching

Rhyme and Reason Climate change is a hot topic at this point in time and has been for many years. The dying of large amounts of coral is one of the consequences of climate change and the main topic discussed in Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Unnatural Selection”. Kolbert’s influences the readers to care about climate change through her use of unusual introductory, pathos, ethos, logos, and her omission of and opposing argument. Unlike many essays, Elizabeth Kolbert does not begin hers with the…

1,300 miles, the Great Barrier Reef extends along the coast of Australia and is home to millions of different of organisms, ranging from the smallest microorganisms to the largest species of fish and mammals. The reef includes over 400 species of coral, 4,000 species of mollusks, different types of sponges, over 1,400 different species of fish, including…

I would like to discuss what beauty of life resides there, as well as what the current status of that life there is. I want to hit main points of status of the Great Barrier Reef, climate change, warmer ocean temperatures, bleaching of the coral reefs, contaminates from river run off, and human touring affects. Most of the Reef is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and various parts of it are protected in certain ways. In example, fishing is restricted in some areas and particular…

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on earth. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, making them the equivalent of an aquatic rain forest (Kitch and Edwards). Occupying a mere one percent of the seafaring environment, coral reefs are home to more than one quarter of all known marine species. This translates to approximately four thousand species of fish,…

fish when picturing coral reefs, what they do not take into account is destroyed, bleached coral reefs with dying species of fish due to this destruction. This is why we need organizations who will put forth the effort necessary to rebuild and preserve these coral reefs. Many of these organizations lack in their abilities to help the coral reefs as result of the ineffective membership requirements that many of these organizations have. In distinction, the International Coral Reef Initiative…

Crown-of-thorns Starfish or COTS are marine invertebrates that are responsible for approximately 42 percent of the loss of coral on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (Cranston, 2015). Plagues of this starfish have destructed coral reefs world wide. Scientists have identified fossil evidence dating back to millions of years ago, however outbreaks have only been detected in the last 50 years (Cranston, 2015). They are characterised by their venomous thorns and are capable of piercing through…

Over the past decade the accounts of various coral diseases have been on the rise which had lead to the decimation of keystone species of corals throughout mainly the world’s tropical oceans. Since the mid-1990s, 18 coral diseases affecting at least 150 scleractinian, gorgonian, and hydrozoan zooxanthellate species have been described in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific (Sutherland et al. 2004). Most of these diseases have been caused by bacterial, fungal, and protist type pathogens as well the…

Beside from its aesthetic value, coral reefs provide a range of goods and services, which are essential to humankind. For an environment that covers less than 1 percent of Earth’s surface, coral reefs “produce an estimated $30 billion of revenue from direct use values such as tourism and fishing, and indirect use values such as coastal protection” (“Coral Reefs: Importance,” 2016). Reefs also provide protection to our land by “reducing the resilience of waves during storms thereby preventing…

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, and lies a short distance off the northeast coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometers. The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s most amazing natural gifts blessed with a breathtaking beauty of the world’s largest coral reef. It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth that you can see from space. As the largest living structure on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef is incredibly…

Coral reefs are Anthozoans. Scientists classify them as animals. They are the largest class of organisms in the phylum cnidarian. There are more than six thousand species. Coral reefs are communities of living things. They are known as the “rainforests of the oceans.” This is because there are sea slugs, oysters and many other creatures living there. Corals are animals related to anemones and jellyfish. They extend their tentacles to sting. A polyp is an individual coral consisting of a stomach…