-In Thailand, a large amount of dive sites are being closed from tourists due to the magnitude of coral damaged by the rising temperatures in the Andaman Sea which is one of the top diving and beach resort regions in the world. Most of the coral reefs' are undergoing bleaching, or the shedding of their color, caused by rising sea temperatures over time. The coral would turn white instead of their bright colors since the heat takes out the algae living in the coral tissues. Bleaching was first spotted in May of last year. Between May and August more than 80 percent of species died. Conservationists blame tourists since they could walk on them and could contaminate the water, but the big claim is that it's from global warming. When the temperature rose, it went up 34 degrees Celsius which is over the average. So, instead of people going into the dive sites where workers are doing their best to help restore the reefs, they can look at the beautiful forests and mountains of Thailand.
-I think it's terrible that coral reefs are being destroyed. Once they're destroyed, other organisms can go extinct since these reefs are their homes. I watch "The Amazing Race" and one of the challenges when they went to Thailand was to help restore coral reefs, so I already knew a little bit about what's going on.
-Will there be a point where most/all coral reefs will be bleached?
-Can conservationists come up with any plans to prevent bleaching of the coral?
-Is it only in the Asia/Indonesian ocean area that the bleaching is occurring?
--This picture demonstrates what is happening to the coral when the algae is leaving the cells of the coral.
-I never knew something like coral could go extinct. I also had never heard of coral being bleached. Its scary to think that more then half of the species of coral reef have died and considering this is a home for other animals it can cause death to other species too. In my opinion we should try to clean out the areas where the coral is being bleacheds and maybe by getting rid of all the pollution in the ocean the temperature will go down. I once when diving near coral reef and there were so many different colors that I can't imagine the reef being all white.
ReplyDelete- I found an article about how a new study found that human waste is destroying coral in Florida.http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/human-waste-dumped-into-oceans-harms-coral-new-study-reveals.html?campaign=th_rss
I have little to no background knowledge on the topic. I have heard the term bleaching of coral reefs but have never took a further step in researching the topic. My insight on the topic puts me in a position where I could not personally tell you if human activity or global warming is the reasoning for the bleaching. I can say though that global warming is a serious issue in today's world. Also that dive sites are essential in understanding life in our oceans. A connection I have to the topic is that my 5th grade teacher was an underwater diver. He actually showed us in class parts to coral reef. A related article I found about global warming is http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/. Questions I have after reading this summary are
ReplyDelete-Other than Thailand, where else is this problem arising?
-What are the steps needed to take if this is in fact an effect of global warming?
-How many different species live within a coral reef?
I never knew that you could bleach a coral reef or that they could even die. Coral acts as a role in an ecosystem as a place to live and without the coral, it will lower the biodiversity which will cause more problems. This problem is from the decrease in ocean water temperatures caused by pollution. Pollution is a such a big problem and needs to be stopped to end global warming. I have never seen, heard much, or been around around a coral reef so i do not have a person thought about this.
ReplyDelete~How many species will this affect if they become extinct?
~Could the color go into the water and contaminate it?
~Why is this such a big deal?
I always knew that coral reefs were being damaged because I did my G-site on coral reefs. I never knew it was this bad. I think people should be more careful around the reefs and that conservationist should take more action in restoring the reef back to its original state. This could turn out to be very bad for the environment and could be bad for us.
ReplyDelete-What are we going to do to help this
-what are they going to do to help this
-What will happen if we dont do anything about this
I found the same article as maddy http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/human-waste-dumped-into-oceans-harms-coral-new-study-reveals.html?campaign=th_rss