Threats to Coral Reefs

Coral reefs have survived tens of thousands of years of natural change, but many of them may not be able to survive the havoc wrought by humankind.Roughly one-quarter of coral reefs worldwide are already considered damaged beyond repair, with another two-thirds under serious threat.Remember how coral reefs are so important to us?Do you really want them to die?If you want to save them,then do not:

1. Destructive fishing practise:These include cyanide fishing, blast or dynamite fishing, bottom trawling, and muro-ami (banging on the reef with sticks). Bottom-trawling is one of the greatest threats to cold-water coral reefs.

(meaning of muro-ami --The muroami fishing technique, employed on coral reefs in Southeast Asia, uses an encircling net together with pounding devices)

2. overfishing: This affects the ecological balance of coral reef communities, warping the food chain and causing effects far beyond the directly overfished population.

3.careless tourism: Careless boating, diving, snorkeling, and fishing happens around the world, with people touching reefs, stirring up sediment, collecting coral, and dropping anchors on reefs. Some tourist resorts and infrastructure have been built directly on top of reefs, and some resorts empty their sewage or other wastes directly into water surrounding coral reefs.

4.pollution: Urban and industrial waste, sewage, agrochemicals, and oil pollution are poisoning reefs. These toxins are dumped directly into the ocean or carried by river systems from sources upstream.

5.Sedimentation: Erosion caused by construction (both along coasts and inland), mining, logging, and farming is leading to increased sediment in rivers.

6.Climate change: Corals cannot survive if the water temperature is too high. Global warming has already led to increased levels of coral bleaching.

More of the Importance of Coral Reefs

Not only are do the coral reefs support the enormous biodiversity, they are also of immense value to humankind.

They are also important to:

Fishes
Corals reefs are vital to the world’s fisheries. They form the nurseries for about a quarter of the ocean’s fish, and provide shelter to the many fishes. If the coral reefs are extinct, the population of fishes will decrease drastically.

Tourists
Some tourists come to Singapore hoping to see beautiful coral reefs. If the coral reefs are bleached, it will lose its beautiful colours and disappoint the tourists. This will make the population of Singapore lesser and lesser.

Coastal protection
Coral reefs break the power of the waves during storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and even tsumanis. . By helping to prevent coastal erosion, flooding, and loss of property on the shore, the reefs save billions of dollars each year in terms of reduced insurance and reconstruction costs and reduced need to build costly coastal defences - not to mention the reduced human cost of destruction and displacement.

Source of medical advances
Doctors expect coral reef species to contribute to future medical advances. Already, coral reefs are being used in treatments for diseases like HIV and Cancer. If coral reefs become extinct, doctors would no be able to treat those diseases and the doctors expecting coral reefs will not be able to do any other studies of discovering medicine/treatments to other disesases which are not discovered yet. Hence, more people will die from lack of medicine.

After the Bleaching of The Coral Reefs

These coral reef are bleached .Bleached coral reefs cannot support populations of fish which feed specifically on corals. Bleaching of coral reef has to stop. We cannot let human acts lead to extinction of coral reefs.

Beauty of The Corals

Here are some of the beautiful coral reefs before any damages done

See how beautiful they are,if you want the coral reefs to stay as beautiful as the pictures depicts, stop doing harm to the coral reefs!

Some interesting facts of coral reefs

• Coral reefs are among the oldest ecosystems on Earth.
• Coral reefs are the largest living structure on the planet.
• They are home to 25% of all marine fish species.
• 500 million people rely on coral reefs for their food and livelihoods
• Coral reefs have been used in the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases and ulcers
• It is estimated that coral reefs provide $375 billion per year around the world in goods and services

You see, they are a lot more fascinating creatures than we think they are. Stop damaging the coral reefs. If you want to save them, why don't you put it in your forum and spread the word.

What are Coral Reefs and why is it so important to save Them?

What are coral reefs?

Basically, coral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms and are found in marine water with little no nutrition in the water. Coral are found in both temperate and tropical waters. High nutrient levels such as those found in runoff from agricultural areas can harm the reef by encouraging the growth of algae.

(aragonite means grounding stone, agricultural means a process of cultivating land or producing varities of food)

Why is it important to save coral reefs?

Coral reefs provide protection and shelter for many different species of fish. Without them, these fishes will be left homeless with nowhere to live and no where to reproduce.

They are important in controlling how much carbon dioxide is in the ocean water. Without them, the amount of carbon dioxide would rise and that will affect all living things on Earth.

They also protect coasts from strong currents and waves by slowing down the water before it goes to the shore. They provide a barrier between the ocean and the shore.

This shows why we must save coral reefs and if they are extinct,there will be many negative impact to our world. In the next post, we will tell you some steps you can follow to save these coral reefs.

The Structures of Coral Reefs

The structure of coral reefs are divided into 6 zones.

The first zone:

The first zone is reef flat.The first region slopes not much down from the shore-line. This sandy expanse is frequently covered with turtle grass and usually ends in a fringing reef made up of elkhorn or staghorn corals with small coral heads.

The second zone:

Moderately inclined sand plain covered in clusters of coral heads called patch or algae reef ridge. It flourishes where wave breaks the reef. Have a elevated bank being formed.

The third zone:

It is called the terrace. Being below the algal ridge, we find many stout brain corals and seafans which are able to withstand the wave surge and strong currents which characterize this area. Parrot fish & surgeon fish populate this area, feeding on alge.

The fourth zone:

Sub-terrace , which is the fourth zone, it have flattened terraces that interrupt the gradient of the reef slope. It is protects the wave surge overhead yet still exposed to abundant sunlight, that we find lush gardens of corals with expansive body forms designed to maximize their exposure to sunlight.

The fifth zone:

Named the reef wall, this is a descending slope. We find corals continue to expand horizontally in shape in order to capture as much sunlight as possible. Branching forms found in shallow water are largely replaced by plate like forms below a depth of 180 ft.

The last zone:

The drop off, this is found in most reef, it is where a reef suddenly drop off, almost forming a vertical wall. At depths below 180 feet, the overlying water reduces the amount of light so much that few sunlight-dependent hard corals can survive. In these dim, quiet waters the delicate corals not dependent upon photosynthesis become common.

What do Coral Reefs need to Survive?

Coral reefs need four main basic needs to survive;water quality, food , light and water movement. However corals can be ''choosy''. Species within any given genus can have widely varied light, current, water quality, or other special needs.

Water quality-

• Minimum level of calcium is 400ppm and the ideal level is 450ppm. Strontium, Iodine and magnesium is also needed.
• Ammonia,which can be a toxic to fishes and other aquatic life, should be at near zero.
• Nitrite, an intermediate oxidized ion of nitrogen, should be at zero. Nitrate , an oxidized ion of nitrogen is able to survive below 10 ppm, but zero would be best.
• Phosphate, a sald composed of the most highly oxidized acid of phosphorus , and forms an important and extensive series of compounds should be below 0.3ppm.
• Alkalinity, the capacity of water for neutralizing an acid solution.It is due to the presence of hydroxides, bicarbonates, carbonates and most of the time borates , sillicates and phosphates. It is expressed in units of milligrams per liter as mg/l. It should be 3.2 to 4.5 meq.
• The temperature should be 80 to 84°F.
• Salinity the relative concentration of dissolved salts, usually sodium chloride, in a given water 1.025 to 1.027 is considered optimal.

Food-

• Most corals are carnivorous, feeding mostly on small animals. Zooplankton which is suspended in the water column of the ocean, copepods, polychrates, chaetognaths and larvae are the more commonly consumed zooplankton items in a coral's diet. Up to 85% of this food emerges from within the reef in the evening and at night.
• Most soft corals, zooanthids and gorgonians depend almost exclusively on phytoplankton, (small water-borne plants or algae) for their nutritional needs as well as floating plankton, detritus and slow moving invertebrate larvae, rather than zooplankton, which can actively propel itself.
• Another important source of food for corals is bacterioplankton, which consists of free-living bacteria as well as the bacteria associated with various materials in the water (mucas, dead plant material, and other particulate matter) which are commonly called detritus or reef snow. Most corals feed on bacterioplankton. Materials which includes detritus, floating eggs and other materials are also known as pseudoplankton. Another category of food utilized by corals is Dissolved Organic Material, which is absorbed across cell membranes directly into the coral.
• Many of the corals with larger polyps like Cynarina and Catalaphyllia are capable of capturing and eating larger food items, including the occasional small fish. many corals may select their food based more on the size of the plankton, than its composition.

Light-

• Light is required by many coral species.
• Soft coral require less light but hard corals need more lights.
• For stone corals, without light, coral bleaching can result.

Water Movement-

• Water movement is required by many coral species.
• Some corals require a water surge to flush debris from their surface.

Purpose of IYOR 2008

The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. (more on http://www.iyor.org/)

Following the recent 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, the largest scientific conference to provide the latest knowledge about coral reefs worldwide, an International Call to Action for Coral Reefs has been issued.
The purpose of the call is to encourage bold and urgent steps to ensure that reefs will survive.

Introduction: About Us

Hi viewers, we are the Marine Warriors from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School. Our group consists of Christopher Mok(Leader), Joshua Tan Kian An and last but not least, Ng Wei Ming. Our aim is to save the coral reefs that are being killed innocently.


Here is more information about the members:

Christopher Mok

Born in : 24 May 1996

Class : 6 Faith
Category : Primary

Hobbies : Sports & Studying Marine life


Joshua Tan Kian An

Born in : 3 April 1996

Class : 6 Faith

Category : Primary

Hobbies : Playing with friends & reading up on non - fiction books


Ng Wei Ming

Born in : 1 August 1996

Class : 6 Faith

Category : Primary

Hobbies : Cycling & Reading

Please leave your comments in the Chat Box. Thank You.