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How Does Global Warming Affect Coral

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Global Warming Affecting Coral Reefs are worth $375 billion each year. They earn this money by attracting tourists. People also make a profit from the fish species that live in the coral (Casper 182), so if all the coral die due to global warming, humans will be affected as well. Coral are marine plants, and marine environments are the most diverse habitats in the world. If the planet was to lose all the coral in the world, it would decrease the diversity of the ocean (Casper 184). Plus, the destruction of reefs affect other animals such as reef fish, turtles, and sharks (Casper 185). All this is happening due to global warming. How does global warming affect coral? Global warming has and is still negatively affecting coral due to the rising temperature of the ocean. The oceans temperature rose 0.18° fahrenheit every decade between 1970 and 2010 due to global warming (Fujita). Even though this doesn’t seem like much of a change, this extra heat makes the sensitive coral more susceptible to illnesses (Le Page 37). The unusually warm waters makes the corals expel food-producing algae which causes the coral to lose its color, turn white, and die due to the lack of nutrition (Markey 1). This is called bleaching (Fujita). The bleaching epidemic caused large sections of the Great Barrier Reef to die because the past years high water temperature (Cave …show more content…

The elevated temperature is the main effect of global warming and the affects branch out from there. Starting with bleaching and algae blooms that make the coral weak with starvation. Then if the lack of nutrients does not kill the coral the acidity of the water will slowly disintegrate the coral. Finally the storms will break up whatever coral remains. This cycle will continue until something is done to stop global warming. Only humans can fix the damage done, and it must be done

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Even as the ocean is warming, much of the coral cover will still remain. We will see a rise in sea-level but to a limited extent. Working to adapting and mitigating to these climate changes will prove successful. Efficient land-based conservation efforts and sanctuary management work will be crucial for facing these climate

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Introduction In order for a coral reef to be productive and healthy, the water quality in the ocean should be maintained. Water quality not only affects coral reefs, but the other organisms that live on it and are involved with the natural food chain. Some of the factors that can influence water quality are nutrients, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, light, and chlorophyll present. Water is essential to every living organism because it helps with respiration, maintaining body temperature, digestion and provides energy.

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Water rising due to climate change is impacting people by causing islands to get flooded. This causes people to have to evacuate and find new homes, which can cause overpopulation in some cases (Doc G & H). Climate change is also impacting people because of health. The warmer temperatures cause there to be longer pollen seasons since the cold comes later and goes away sooner (Doc E). This makes for miserable and potentially dangerous summers for people who are allergic to pollen (Doc F).

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With only about one-sixth of the original coral cover left, most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years. This statistics according to the latest report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). First of all, as we know nearly two-thirds of coral reefs in the Caribbean are threatened by human activities. For example of human activities that effect the coral reefs are coastal development, watershed-based sediment and pollution, marine based threats and also overfishing. Within the years, the Reefs at Risk Threat Index identified that about one-tenth of Caribbean coral reefs are at very high levels of threat,

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Calculations for tourism for the year of 2015 are unavailable at this time, but for the year of 2014, the reef received a total of 2.19 million visitors. It is a well – known piece of information that there is a global climate change going on where there is a rise in CO2 in the atmosphere due to higher emissions of fossil fuel and more deforestation occurring. The ocean then absorbs more of this CO2, which in turn raises the acidity, which in turn creates a poor environment for the coral to live and recover from bleaching that has already occurred. This change in acidity also affects the calcium carbonate that corals use to build themselves. (“Climate Hot Map- Global Warming Effects Around the

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This study was taken in 2002, a time where coral bleaching was still in its early stages worldwide. They found that during February of this year, there was “high cloud cover, very high rainfall and lower hours of sunshine” which resulted in the mitigation of “severe bleaching” (Hardman). However, the water temperatures were reported to have been up to

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Here is how climate change will effect the U.S. tropical islands. Sea level rise will threaten the amount freshwater, ecosystems, and infrastructure of U.S. tropical islands. Coral reefs, That are already being hurt by pollution, will probably get worse as the ocean gets warmer and absorbs more acid. Here is how climate change will effect the North East. Heat waves that come more often and heavier rain fall events are expected to threaten human health in danger and over work aging infrastructure.

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When the water of the sea becomes warmer due to higher temperatures which diminishes the oxygen content, the coral expels the algae that exists within their tissues causing it to turn completely white. This results in coral bleaching. Thus, the elevating heat stress which results from high sea temperatures serves as the main factor that induced damage to the coral reefs. If the heat prevails, the reef may even die instead of recovering. Coral reefs provide home to a significant number of sea species and coral bleaching causes their habitats to destroy completely and effect the marine life adversely.

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The Great Barrier Reef is actually the largest living thing on Earth. In fact, it can even be seen from space. The only problem with reefs is that they can only survive under a certain temperature range. If the temperature is too low or too high for the reefs, this causes the algae, which gives the coral their beautiful and bright colors, to leave the coral, and therefore causing the coral to become bleached (National Ocean Service). This is exactly what has happened this year.

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Global warming can cause many changes in our environment. Polar ice caps can start to melt which can cause rising sea levels and can easily lead to coastal flooding on the eastern seaboard. There can also be affects on the types of storms that can occur if global warming continues. Scientists say that category three storms can turn into a more dangerous category fours. Farms and cities will face new pests, heatwaves, heavy downpours, and increased flooding.

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Now another natural cause of global warming is the rising of the seas. The biggest reason for sea level rising is that global warming is causing the air to be warmer and that 's causing glaciers and ice-caps to melt. Sea level rise would affect about 11 out of the 15 biggest cities in the world. The reason this is happening because gases are being released into the atmosphere which is causing the temperatures to rise, which causes the seas to rise. Sea level rising means more money that we have to spend for people living on the coastlines because coastal populations are growing and people are crowding into coastal areas and that area could be underwater in a few years if sea levels keep rising how they have been.

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The ice from glaciers, the ice sheets and permafrost are already melting and will probably continue to melt at a higher rate in the future leading to rises in ocean levels (IPCC, 2014). Furthermore, it causes the emission of methane (also a GHG), stored mostly in the Arctic regions (Shakhova et al., 2007) which in turn leads to increased heat in the atmosphere, further aggravating climate change. GHGs cause the oceans to contain increasingly more acids, which damages coral reefs and negatively influences the amount of CO2 the ocean can absorb (IPCC, 2014). Weather conditions are becoming progressively extreme and a rise in floods, hurricanes and temperatures can already be measured and will further increase in the future (USGCRP, 2014). Weather incidents could destroy forests and swamps, which causes less CO2 to be absorbed naturally.

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