Coral reef destruction
Last year, scientists remarked the "unprecedented" collapse of Florida's reef, that expands along the south-eastern part of the state of Florida. This ecosysten, that was the only barrier reef in the continental US, was attacked by bleaching in 2014 and 2015 and is now is "beginning to dissolve away", according to Chris Langdon, a coral expert at the University of Miami. More than 80% of shallow water reefs of Christmas Island have died and it has been shown by pictures released to the public not too long ago, that 90% of the reefs in Okinawa, Japan were bleached as well. This is an alarming news, not only because it will affect marine life's ecosystems, but us as well.
The most common phenomenon we've seen thus far has been the bleaching event. Bleaching is a process that happens when waters are too warm; the corals will expel algae that is living inside them causing the oral to become
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Loss of coral reefs would be devastating to one of the most grand pools of biodiversity in the whole world They help seed the oceans and provide food to a complex web of organisms that lead all the way to man. They act as natural barriers to shorelines, and as they die, coastlines become more susceptible to damage and flooding; tropical storms and high waves would be the ones that could make the most damage if coral reefs were to disappear. Of course, not only we are the ones to be damaged by this, but other animals in the marine ecosystem too, like sharks. Sharks work in the ocean and in coral reefs by cycling nutrients between it and the open ocean, removing invasive species, and getting rid of weak fish carrying disease; if coral reefs were to disappear, then sharks would lose one of their main ways to obtain food and nutrients. And as we all know, if one animal disappears in an ecosystem, the organisms that consumed them would die and affect the food chain so