Coral Reef Research Paper

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Currently about a quarter of coral reefs in the world are already damaged beyond repair and within the other three quarters of coral reefs, two-thirds of them are under serious threat. (Bryant, Burke, McManus, & Spalding, 1998) The majority of coral reef damage is undeliberate, resulting from human activities and in many situations the stresses accumulated from human activities overwhelm the resilience of coral reefs. The major threats to coral reefs are:
Cyanide fishing is a popular capture method in Southeast Asia using sodium cyanide solution to stun groups of fish in the water, causing severe coral reef degradation. When exposed to different cyanide concentrations for various time periods, corals such as Pocillopora damicornis and Porites …show more content…
These pollutants are discharged directly into the sea or into river systems which eventually drain into the ocean. Oil spills from ships stay near the water surface for a few days before totally evaporating, which may affect coral health in sub-lethal forms. (Jones & Endean, 1976) A massive crude oil spill accident occurred in April 1986 near the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. The huge spill took over 10 years to completely evaporate, and during this time it had greatly decreased the cover, size and diversity of coral life by 76% in 3-metre-deep waters. In particular, the coral species Acropora palmate was almost eliminated in the incident. (Bryant, Burke, McManus, & Spalding, 1998) Moreover, the largest oil spill accident in the petroleum history is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Coral damages including tissue loss, enlargement and excess mucous production were observed in virtually all exposed area and 23% of the corals exhibited over 90% damage. With respect to agricultural pollution, the abundant nutrients in agricultural runoffs can result in algal blooms which can eventually cause suffocation of coral by cutting off their sunlight. (Jones & Endean, 1976) In the Florida Keys, a three-year study of corals regularly exposed to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus was done from 2009-12. The study revealed that the amount of coral bleaching and coral diseases was doubled in the exposure to elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. (McLeonard,
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