Natural Threats To Coral Reef Environmental Sciences Essay.
Some of these threats are natural stresses such as hurricanes, cyclones typhoons earthquake and human threats such as pollution. The natural threats are usually episodic or irregular in both space and time. This is different from the human threats on the coral reefs meaning that the threats are persistent and constantly intensifying.
A number of forces threaten the survival of coral reefs and the organisms that depended on them. Coral reefs worldwide are in serious decline because of coral disease and bleaching primarily brought on by underlining human induced disturbances.
Coral bleaching is the whitening of coral colonies due to the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae from the tissues of polyps (Guilcher 1988). This loss exposes the white calcium carbonate skeletons of the coral, yet coral naturally lose about 0.1% of their zooxanthellae during regulation and replacemen.
Show More Fishing activities are considered one of the three most substantial threats to coral reefs health today (Roberts, 2009). It causes many negative direct and indirect effects on aquatic structure and communities, and in many cases, leads to species extirpation or extinction (Roberts, 2009).
Explain why coral reefs are important to ocean life, humans, and the overall environment. Describe three major threats to coral reefs, including an explanation as to why these threats are occurring. Outline for each threat a strategy to protect the coral reefs (total of three strategies).
Threats to coral reefs include coastal construction, tourism, pollution and overfishing. Specific reefs that have problems with sustainability are the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, the Cebu in the Philippines and the Florida Keys in the USA.
Coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef that results from human impact will contribute to the suffering of billions of sea life species. Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. According to Nancy Knowlton of Smithsonian Ocean, “25% of fish species spend some part of their life cycle in reefs, despite the fact that coral.