Hawaii's Threatened Coral Reefs |
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Environment_380/Hawaii-s-Threatened-Coral-Reefs.shtml
Picture: This is a picture of a healthy coral reef. Invasive algae species, fungus, and global warming are all killing off coral reefs around the globe just like this one.
Summary: All across Hawaii, coral reefs are dying due to many causes. An undocumented fungi which grows through photosynthesis, spreads through coral reefs as much as three inches per week. 50-100 year old corals are dying within eight weeks because this fungus spreads so fast. An invasive algae species which was introduced for aquaculture is spreading quickly. Scientists are concerned because the algae forms thick, tangled matts and soaks up all of the oxygen in the water that the animals, plants, and corals need. Biologists are doing their best to figure out ways to take the algae out of the water, without disturbing the coral themselves. One way includes sucking and pumping out the algae with a vacuum-like machine. Once the scientists clear the reef of the algae, they place native sea urchins in its place to help keep he area clean. Decades of overfishing in these areas has also greatly reduced the biodiversity of coral reefs, making them more vulnerable to climate change. High water temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide in the water are also contributing to extreme coral bleaching, which kills valuable coral reefs.
Opinion/Reflection: Coral reefs are extremely important to underwater life, and I think that it is extremely important that we protect them from as much damage as possible. It's wonderful that scientists are starting to realize this problem and that they are starting to take actions to protect our coral reefs. I feel that they are on the right track to fixing this problem, and with a little bit more research, they will hopefully find a solution. The world needs to understand how big of a problem this actually is and to start taking action towards protecting coral reefs. Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, and not polluting the environment are all ways that we can help reduce global warming which will in turn, help save coral reefs.
Questions:
1- Do you feel that it is important to save coral reefs? Why or why not?
2- What do you think are some solutions to this problem?
3- Out of all of the issues stated, which one do you feel is the biggest problem hat is contributing to the dying of coral reefs? Why?
4- Do you think that it is possible to completely fix this problem? Why or why not?
1- Do you feel that it is important to save coral reefs? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI feel it is very important because it is a home for many different organisms and if we destroy them then all of the organisms will die off or move to a different location causing more problems.
2- What do you think are some solutions to this problem?
I think some solutions is that they can create some kind of chemical that destroys the algae but doesn't affect anything else in the process.
3- Out of all of the issues stated, which one do you feel is the biggest problem hat is contributing to the dying of coral reefs? Why?
I personally think that the over fishing is the biggest problem because of how the biodiversity of the ecosystem is dying.
4- Do you think that it is possible to completely fix this problem? Why or why not?
I do not think we can completely fix this problem because of how bad the algae problem already is. I think we can minimize the amount of algae but not completely fix the problem.
http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9903/22/coral.reef.enn/index.html?iref=allsearch
ReplyDeleteThis article, coming from CNN, talks about what is part of the reef protection plan passed back in 1999. President Clinton made this plan to protect reefs from specific human interactions so that the reefs could be preserved. The first step of the plan was to locate the perimeter of the Hawaiian reef, and then set up the areas that will be heavily protected and monitored. From there, they will monitor the coral reefs to make sure the aquatic life and coral are well protected and safe from human interactions.
New Question: What are the benefits of coral reefs and the preservation of them?
ReplyDeleteOpinion: I think coral reefs are very important to the ocean and to modern science because there is so much we can learn from them. A ton of money and effort goes into protecting things like forrests and wildlife, and that same attention needs to be given to this issue before it is too late. Awareness of this issue should be raised and more action should be taken to help preserve these reefs.
Ken Caldeira is a senior scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology on the campus of Stanford University in California. He is also a professor at Stanford University's Department of Environmental Earth System Sciences. Caldeira studies marine biogeochemistry and chemical oceanography, and also has a wide-spectrum approach in analyzing our world's climate systems. I chose to invite Caldeira because he does study marine biogeochemistry and chemical oceanography, but I believe he also studies some of the same topics we learned in class during the Hydrosphere unit. He might also mention some really good information that we don't already know about, as well as his opinions on Hawaii's threatened coral reefs.
ReplyDeleteDear Ken Caldeira,
Hello. My name is Phillip Ho, and I am a freshman from Horsham, Pennsylvania. I am part of the Environmental Science class, and one of our assignments was to create a blog that talked about current environmental issues with a small group of people from our class. One of the members of our blog group wrote this blog post regarding the threatened coral reefs in Hawaii, and from looking online, I saw that you are working on a solution to save the world's coral reefs after they started to dissolve due to the high level of acid in our world's oceans, and from what I looked up, you seem to be a scientist who studies marine biogeochemistry and chemical oceanography. I know that you might be very busy and I clearly understand that, but if time persists, it would be very beneficial to me and my class if you go to the blog post I mentioned earlier (Link will be down below this e-mail.) and comment on the post with your thoughts and opinions on the threatened coral reefs in Hawaii. That would be really appreciated of you. With that being said, thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail, and I hope to hear from you very soon!
Sincerely,
Phillip Ho
Link to Blog Post: http://greenisthenewblack11.blogspot.com/2013/04/hawaiis-threatened-coral-reefs-httpwww.html
I believe that efforts to try to save coral reefs after damage has been done will generally be a case of "too little, too late". The important thing is to prevent damage from happening in the first place.
DeleteThis means doing things like:
(1) greatly reducing carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gas) emissions;
(2) managing fisheries so that fishing is done in a sustainable manner;
(3) managing farming practices so that nutrients and sediments from land do not damage marine environments;
(4) addressing point sources of coastal pollution (e.g., sewer plants, factories).
As my mother often said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."