Coral Bleaching by JS

Did you know that coral is considered an animal instead of a plant? Coral reefs are one of the most important ecosystems to not only sea life, but also humans. Without them, the effects would be catastrophic. Coral bleaching has been one of the main causes of coral reefs disappearing. It is when coral loses its color and goes white because of many different causes: climate change, too much sunlight, or pollution. Those are only some main causes. Effects of coral bleaching include stunting coral growth, trouble for reproduction, coral being more vulnerable to diseases, and even coral dying. Coral bleaching doesn’t only harm coral itself, it also affects other sea life, humans, and increases coastal disasters.

Coral bleaching negatively impacts sea life around it, because of the coral dying from it. It constraints coral from getting energy through photosynthesis, which leaves it weak and vulnerable. There are way too many species that depend on coral for food sources and other things in order for the rest of the coral reef to survive when coral bleaching is in action. 25% of the ocean’s fish depend on healthy coral. When coral dies, the whole coral reef starts to struggle and while the rest of the sea life starts to fall into a domino effect. The most quick to die are the species who depend on coral, whether it’s feeding on them or working alongside them to live. Once those species start to die, the rest of the species follow because they need each other to live. That’s how an ecosystem is built in the first place. Coral reefs are the main and most important ecosystem in the oceans, they are home to more than 7,000 species of fish. They also hold the most biodiversity, more than any other ecosystem in the world. But as coral bleaching increases, coral reefs are starting to die off faster and that’s causing a decrease in not only sea life biodiversity, but the world’s biodiversity.

Another thing Coral bleaching affects is humans. While coral’s dying, so are coral reefs. Millions of people depend on coral reefs and their sea life as a food source. Because of the large biodiversity, humans rely heavily on the coral reefs, fish and plants for food. Half a billion people rely on coral reefs for their source of income. Scientists, for instance, do research and investigating for a living. Coral reefs are one of the main things they study because of the many species and sea life that live in them. Now, many scientists are finding great difficulty in getting permission to sample in coastal areas, because of the struggles of coral reefs. Numerous places now lack the capacity for scientists to do their daily data collection for their research. The coral reef also gives humans support for their fishing industry. Researchers use the ecosystem to study all the sea life species, and with the coral reefs dying so fast, they aren’t able to study them all in time.

One more thing it affects are coastal disasters. Coral reef barriers are what protects the coast from large waves, floods, and sometimes storms. Although it doesn’t keep all of them from happening, it keeps a decent amount of them from flowing towards the coast. If coral reefs die out, there will be no more shield to protect the coast and also humans from waves and floods. Extreme weather would increase as well as deaths from coastal disasters. Barriers shelter the mainland and block off strong currents, so in order to keep those numbers low, coral bleaching has to be decreased and slow down the deaths of coral reefs.

To wrap it up, coral bleaching is causing harm to many things, not only coral. It has been the cause of the deaths of coral reefs. When coral dies, so does the rest of the ecosystem, leading to a domino effect. Coral reefs dying means humans losing a big part of their food source and losing a huge source of income. Finally, coral bleaching puts the coasts of mainland in danger because there won’t be any more coral reef barriers to protect the coasts from coastal disasters and extreme weathers.