Losing Battle for Coral (Research Paper - Rough Draft)

Rain forests are being cut and burned, environmental groups are up in arms, and people fight to save these rapidly depleting resources. However, what about the habitat that is commonly referred to as the “…rainforest of the sea…” (“Coral Reef,” 2007)? Where is the media coverage relating to these incredibly bio-diverse marine habitats being threatened and destroyed; why does the public not know of the threats that have come to the coral reefs of the world? Although coral reefs are an important global resource, they are being threatened by human impact because of rising ocean temperatures, nutrient pollution, and aggressive commercial fishing tactics.

In order to understand what is threatening coral reefs, one must first understand how these beautiful structures are formed and why they are important on a global scale. According to The Coral Reef Alliance, “Coral reefs are massive structures made of limestone that is deposited by living things” (2007); however, there is a bit more to it then just that. One must understand that, “Old coral reefs may be over 30 meters (98 feet) thick, but the living part is only a thin veneer of corals and other organisms, perhaps only a meter (about 3 feet) thick on the surface” (Freeman, 2003). The actual structure of a coral reef is composed of the skeletons of various calcifying marine organisms, including some types of corals, which are shed and pile up to form the infrastructure of the reef. On the outside of the reef there is the living corals and organisms which will eventually shed their own skeletons and over time become part of the infrastructure. (Freeman, 2003)

According to The Coral Reef Alliance, “… [They] support over twenty-five percent of all known marine species” (2007). This is an astounding number of species which in itself makes coral reefs an absolutely amazing habitat well worth preserving. However there are even more reasons that these incredibly beautiful and diverse structures deserve our attention; they are important to the economy of many coastal regions due to commercial fish habitats as well as being a major attraction in the realm of tourism, they are, “…home to over 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral, and thousands of other forms of plant and animal life” (The Coral Reef Alliance, 2007), as well as providing a very important structural protection for beaches and coastline areas around the world.

As stated, coral reefs are being threatened in multiple ways by the impact of humans on their environment; one way in which humans are impacting coral reefs is the rising ocean temperature of the earth’s oceans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was cited in the magazine Water, Environment, and Technology as saying, “When coral is subjected to environmental stressors, such as warmer water temperatures, it expels the symbiotic micro-algae living within its tissues, the news release explains. These algae - the coral's food source - also provide the coral its color, making it appear bleached when absent. Coral bleaching occurring for more than 1 week can lead to coral death and the subsequent loss of coral reef habitats for a range of marine life…” (2006). Scientists are currently studying the rising ocean temperatures and trying to determine the cause, so far there have been a few things discovered; for one, scientists believe that El Nino is a contributing factor to the current rise in ocean temperatures. According to The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), El Nino is a, “…warming of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America that occurs every 4 to 12 years when cold, nutrient-rich water does not come up from the ocean bottom” (2004). However, in addition to the naturally occurring phenomena of El Nino, scientists also believe that warming ocean temperatures are being caused by the increased levels of carbon dioxide within the atmosphere. Humans are believed to be directly responsible for this increased level of carbon dioxide in the air, a situation often referred to as global warming; it is the result of multiple things which include carbon emissions from power plants and automobiles, as well as deforestation. This excess carbon dioxide is doing many things to the atmosphere and to the earth. For one, it is depleting the ozone layer, which in effect is causing the earth’s temperature to rise, in effect causing the ocean’s temperature to rise. Also, the excess carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the earth’s oceans, which is a natural process. However, due to the large excess of carbon dioxide in the air, there is an above average amount being absorbed by the ocean, leading to a phenomenon called ocean acidification. Ocean acidification, according to Crystal Davis, in an article entitled "Ocean Acidification, the Other Threat of Rising CO2 Emissions," “…occurs when CO2 in the atmosphere reacts with water to create carbonic acid, [it has] has already increased ocean acidity by 30 percent…” (2007). This phenomena has multiple effects which are in themselves currently being studied by scientists, but one of the major effects of ocean acidification is it’s degradation of calcifying marine organisms, which as stated before, corals are. Another type of calcifying marine organism is a type of plankton which helps to shade the ocean from the direct rays of the sun, and as this type of plankton is affected by the acidity of the ocean it dies, creating a cycle of rising ocean temperatures. Cheryl Lyn Dybas wrote a paper called, “On a Collision Course: Ocean Plankton and Climate Change,” and in this paper she quotes scientists Helen Coxall and Steve D'Hondt as saying, “Plankton ecosystems in Earth's oceans took 3 million years to fully recover after the mass extinction event 65 million years ago…” (2006), this is obviously not good news for plankton, corals, reefs, or the global community as a whole. Global warming and the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air are having multiple detrimental effects on the oceans and on coral reefs in general. These effects all combine to create long term devastation of coral reefs due to coral bleaching, as well as the skeletons of corals being degraded by ocean acidification.

Another threat to coral reefs is nutrient pollution; attributed to many things, nutrient pollution is caused by, “…agricultural runoff, sewage pollution, and deforestation” ("Nutrient Pollution Aggravates Coral Diseases," 2004). More or less the problem is that different types of corals, which previously stated shed their skeletons to create the structure of coral reefs, are susceptible to various diseases. Two of the diseases that affect corals are Aspergillosis and Yellow Band Disease. In a paper entitled "Nutrient Pollution Aggravates Coral Diseases," John Bruno, an Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina, and his colleagues discussed the findings of their research conducted by exposing coral to concentrated nutrient levels found in agricultural fertilizers; their research shows that, “As nutrient concentrations increased two- to fivefold, yellow-band-related tissue loss … nearly doubled… The severity of Aspergillosis … also increased as nutrient levels increased. This shows that corals and in effect coral reefs are being affected by nutrient pollution. Humans have a great impact on the oceans of the earth, and in effect upon the organisms that live within the oceans; it is imperative that as a global community humans monitor the amount of waste that is allowed to spread into the ocean and affect coral reefs and all other resources that exist in the ocean.

At the same time, rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and nutrient pollution are not the only things affecting coral reefs, there are also aggressive commercial fishing activities that are having adverse effects on the reefs as well. There are various fishing practices that fall into this category, for example blast fishing, cyanide fishing, bottom sea trawling, and over-fishing are all having negative effects on coral reefs. Blast fishing usually involves the use of dynamite or grenades to catch fish, inadvertently destroying anything that may be near the blast wave of the explosive device, such as coral or coral reefs. Cyanide fishing, according to The Coral Reef Alliance, is a process involving, “fishers dive down to the reef and squirt[ing] cyanide in coral crevices and on the fast-moving fish, to stun the fish making them easy to catch. Although some large tropical fish can metabolize cyanide, smaller fish and other marine animals, such as coral polyps, are poisoned by the chemical cloud produced during this process” (2007). At the same time bottom sea trawling is a commercial fishing technique using, “…steel rollers that clear the path for the net to come behind, so that the net doesn't snag on anything” (The Coral Reef Alliance, 2007), inevitably the rollers also destroy anything in their path, including delicate coral reefs. Of course another problem is over-fishing of coral reef habitats. This in essence disturbs the natural cycle of things, throwing off the food-chain and causing reefs to no longer function in the natural rhythm of nature.

As a whole, coral reefs are being threatened by human impact in multiple ways whether by direct means or indirectly. Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the largest areas of this impact affecting reefs, but there is also pollution and commercial fishing. The reefs are absolutely incredible places to visit and recreate, the aesthetic beauty that they possess is almost unparalleled anywhere else on earth, however the benefits of coral reefs as economic and environmental resources stretch even farther than the purely aesthetic value of them. It is important as a global community to think about the importance that these often overlooked structures play in the overall well-being of the earth’s oceans, and as a global environmentally conscience community, it is important to do all we can to ensure that these beautiful, diverse, and incredible habitats are not destroyed in the coming years.


Coral Reef. (2007). Encyclomedia: Free Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 March, 2008, from http://www.encyclomedia.com/coral_reef.html

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Freeman, M. (2003). About Corals & Coral Reefs. Coral Reef Adventure. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.coralfilm.com/about.html#issues

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Gutro, R. (2004). NASA Satellites See El Nino Creep in From the Indian Ocean. National Atmospheric and Space Administration. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/elnino_ocean.html

Davis, C. (2007, September). Ocean Acidification, the Other Threat of Rising CO2 Emissions. Time for Change. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://timeforchange.org/ocean-acidification-effect-of-global-warming

Bruno, J. (2004). Nutrient Pollution Aggravates Coral Diseases. Water Environment & Technology. 16(3), 10. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from ASTA Database (BAST04117983).

Dybas, C.L. (2006). On a Collision Course: Ocean Plankton and Climate Change. Bioscience, 56(8), 642-646. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from ASFA Database (7233874).