Coral

with purchasing and maintaining coral. In specific, zoanthids, which contain a hidden poison called palytoxin. Over the years, the media has released several case studies regarding individuals and families who have become seriously ill from palytoxin due to an exposure to zoanthid corals. This essay provides a scenario of a family from Orlando, Florida who became ill after improperly cleaning the families collection of zoanthid corals in their aquarium. Zoanthid corals are…

In their research article, Graham and Linda Forrester, Lianna Jarecki, and Rebecca Flynn explored the effects of an anchoring event on a coral reef at Crab Cove in the British Virgin Islands. With an increase in tourism, recreational boat traffic has increased and some boaters don’t think about where their anchor is going when they throw it overboard. On July 7th, 2004, a 50 meter vessel named the Holo-Kai anchored overnight on the reef. The heavy chains and three anchors used to hold the…

Coral Reef Bleaching Coral reef bleaching, which is the whitening of diverse invertebrate taxa. The cause of the whitening is “from the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae and/or a reduction in photosynthetic pigment concentrations in zooxanthellae residing within the gastrodermal tissues of host animals.” (P.W.Glynn) The reason why coral reef bleaching is such a concern is because the “consequences of bleaching large numbers of reef-building scleractinian corals and hydrocorals.”(P.W.Glynn)…

Coral reefs are vital to our marine ecosystems and essentially ours as well. They are the foundation of marine life and its diversity as well as a big part of human economics. Since coral reefs are so fragile it’s hard to maintain their beauty and life without ruining them. Lately, fisherman and multiple accounts of human activity have destroyed the coral reefs and the population of reefs all of the worlds is decreasing. While we have already lost 27% of coral reefs, why do we care if more die…

In recent years, the world’s coral reefs have suffered tremendous losses in abundance as the effect that human consumption has on the environment increases. Coral reef degradation is highly influenced by food production practices such as fishing, agriculture, and animal agriculture. These human disturbances on the environment, both direct and indirect, have had lasting effects on both coral reefs and their composing ecosystems. Coral reefs serve a crucial role in the shaping of the oceans…

Have you ever just turned on the television and saw on discovery channel or something the Coral Reefs? They are beautiful aren’t they? That is why we cannot let them die off because of Acidification. Acidification is when too much carbon dioxide gets into the ocean which increases the acidity of the water and lowering the ph. I know other issues may be talked about more but if we look really close at acidification, acidification is a huge aftermath of those issues. I swear the human species as a…

The book, Coral Reefs, by Simon Rose, presents that categories of coral reefs, what coral reefs are home to, and the dangers that they may face. Coral reefs are made up of coral polyps that attach and multiply to a limestone skeleton called a calicle. Coral reefs are categorized in three ways, which is by their type. 1. Fringed reef, 2. Barrier reef, 3. Atolls. The fringed reef either borderers the shore near a lagoon, or it will be directly attached, next is the barrier reef. The barrier reef,…

Acropora Millepora is just one of the many types of coral species in the world that are affected by coral bleaching. As the previous section looked at the organismal level of these particular species, this section will now take the perspective at the population level. Population ecology is defined in the book of Environmental Science as “ the study of factors that cause populations to increase or decrease” ( Friedland 151). These factors may include what enables species to thrive in a certain…

ecocentrism is the Coral Reef Conservation Act. Under this act, the Coral Reef Task Force maps and monitors…

Coral reefs provide shelter and food for more than 1 million plant and animal species, which is nearly one quarter of all known marine species. This number includes over 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral, and thousands of other plant and animal forms of life (Cesar, et al.). A single coral reef at its prime contains tens of thousands of species, housing some of the most dense and diverse communities of vertebrate animals in the world. Unfortunately, with the destruction that they face,…