Great Barrier Reef Eutrophication

Corals under stress due to changes in PH levels or temperature of the water will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living within their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. Another cause of coral bleaching is produced formation water, an effluent of offshore oil and gas industries that cause significant bleaching ( White et al .2012) .When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.

They break down dead biological matter and waste products and convert them into useable energy; returning important materials to the environment. Decomposers are a particular important feature in the Great Barrier Reef considering the heavy bio-load. Main decomposers inside the reef include bacteria, sea cucumbers, some species of snails, crabs and bristle worms. Bacteria sis not only vital for the Great Barrier Reef’s food web, but is also said by scientists that it could be the key to keeping the coral healthy and able to withstand the impacts of global warming. Dr Tracy Ainsworth stated “it is very likely that these microorganisms play a vital role in the capacity of coral to recovering from bouts of bleaching caused by rising temperatures.”

With only about one-sixth of the original coral cover left, most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years. This statistics according to the latest report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). First of all, as we know nearly two-thirds of coral reefs in the Caribbean are threatened by human activities. For example of human activities that effect the coral reefs are coastal development, watershed-based sediment and pollution, marine based threats and also overfishing. Within the years, the Reefs at Risk Threat Index identified that about one-tenth of Caribbean coral reefs are at very high levels of threat,

Although we have explored less than five percent of our vast oceans, humans have set them on a path to devastation long before we could discover the rest. Mark Prigg for dailymail.com warns by the end of the century, the oceans will have been damaged to an irreversible point. Without the oceans, the global climate cannot be regulated, where the world’s environmental state would then be far worse than what we have seen to be possible by, for example, global warming. It begins with our oceans becoming filled with various forms of waste by humans, atmospheric changes causing acidity in water increase, and imbalances of organism life leading to lower levels of oxygen. How the oceans may die is crucial to understand in order for them to be preserved for the survival of the planet.

“In 2005, the U.S lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event”(National Ocean Service). Another article states that in January 2010, cold-water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral death. Researchers have evaluated the cold-stress of the water will make coral more susceptible to disease, in the same way warmer water impact coral. Luckily there are things that we can do to help stop this

Coral reef destruction Last year, scientists remarked the "unprecedented" collapse of Florida's reef, that expands along the south-eastern part of the state of Florida. This ecosysten, that was the only barrier reef in the continental US, was attacked by bleaching in 2014 and 2015 and is now is "beginning to dissolve away", according to Chris Langdon, a coral expert at the University of Miami. More than 80% of shallow water reefs of Christmas Island have died and it has been shown by pictures released to the public not too long ago, that 90% of the reefs in Okinawa, Japan were bleached as well. This is an alarming news, not only because it will affect marine life's ecosystems, but us as well.

Since the 1970s, coral reef populations have declined by more than 50% (IUCN 2014). The principal cause of this decline was due to the mass mortality of the sea

With all of the pollution there is not any clean water for the reefs to thrive; the

These starfish are not commonly found in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, but some of them reach the area due to ocean currents, tropical storms or human activity. However, when the population of this specific kind of starfish increases at the Great Barrier Reef the reef “might be completely destroyed in two to three years”1. An invasion by these starfish causes devastation to the reef, as happened in 1970. Many parts of the Great Barrier Reef have been destroyed, and although the population of crown-of-thorns starfish near the reef is now negligible the reef still needs a long time to recover from this plague.2

The zooxanthellae, an algae that live in the tissues of corals and their source of food, leave their tissue if higher temperatures carry on for weeks. This causes the corals to turn white since it is the zooxanthellae that produces their color. ‘Bleached corals’ are the ones that are white and unhealthy which means they are weak and less able to fight disease. As climate change (higher or warmer water temperature) continues, bleaching will become more common and overall health of coral reefs will deteriorate. Across the Pacific Ocean, coral reefs are declining at a rate of about two percent a year, and it may be only 40 to 50 years before they’re completely gone.

The oyster hatcheries are affected because the baby oysters, or larvae, need calcium carbonate to build their shells, but it is replaced by the emitted carbon dioxide. The pH, or calcium carbonate will have gone down by 50% by mid century, according to the article, “Are Oysters Doomed?” The larvae dissolve in acidic water because they don’t have the nutrients to make their shells. If the oyster hatcheries don’t have the larvae to give to the oyster farms, then they can’t support the industry which is very large in Washington. Infact, the video Acidifying Water Takes Toll On Northwest Shellfish, says that the oyster industry supports 3,200 jobs in Washington state and brings in $2.7 million a year

Negative Impacts Environmental Environmental impacts for example, Climate change, especially the rising ocean temperatures and Ocean Acidification is as of now influencing the Great Barrier Reefs Ecosystem. Coral bleaching coming about because of expanding ocean temperature and lower rates of calcification in skeleton-building life forms, for example, corals, because of sea acidification, are the impacts of most concern and are as of now obvious. Agricultural sources are adding to the waterfront and inshore territories of the Great Barrier Reef by expanded Nutrients, Sediments and different Pollutants in the catchment runoff. With the coastal population continuing to grow the coastal development grows which contributes to the modification

The Great Barrier Reef has and will continue to face countless threats in its lifetime. The reef has survived through millions of disastrous events through the years. The Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) is a major threat to the coral reefs which helps destroy the Great Barrier Reef. This threat may be no bigger than a dinner plate, but it is one of the biggest threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Kate Osborne and researchers discovered that Crown of Thorns Starfish were responsible for 36.7% of coral damage, 33.8% caused by storms, 6.5% by disease, 5.6% created by bleaching and 17.4% unknown or multiple causes of the damage to the Great Barrier Reef, as shown in Appendix 1 (The Conversation. 2012).

Pollutants from factories, cars, boats, and litter are all the things humans use to pollute the bay. The bay contains a high amount of phosphorus and nitrogen. Phosphorus and nitrogen are needed for organisms and plants to be able to survive. However, an excess amount of phosphorus and nitrogen degrade the quality of Chesapeake bays water. Phosphorus and nitrogen feed algae blooms that block sunlight to the underwater bay grass and leaving a low supply of oxygen in the water.

August 29th, 2005, a category 5 hurricane made land fall along the United States Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina is considered to be one of the most destructive hurricanes the U.S. has ever incurred; displacing hundreds of thousands from their homes throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Consequently the U.S. economy was greatly impacted from the desolation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted. Katrina stretched over 400 miles across with wind speeds up to 100-140 mph; more than 2,000 lives were lost and over 90,000 square miles of the U.S. were affected.