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Did you know that one-third of reef-building corals around the world are facing extinction now? Yup. Right now. It will still be in danger of getting into extinction and definitely not just athird but more if we do nothing about it. People, stop harming. Start saving! I researched on this and got some information from Science Daily.
Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) -- a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) -- to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to this important group of marine species.
For the very first time, corals actually appeared in the list. It is said to be very disconcerting by Kent Carpenter,lead author of the Science article, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme. When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems. That's definitely bad. When the whole ecosystem goes down, the earth, will never look this beautiful, ever again. Even if something on Earth looks good, the beauty of the Earth is not complete.
Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of marine species, making them the most biologically diverse of marine ecosystems. Corals produce reefs in shallow tropical and sub-tropical seas and have been shown to be highly sensitive to changes in their environment.It will really be bad if these coral reefs, which suffered and faced challenges against the tides becomes extinct after so much the coral reefs went through.
Researchers identified the main threats to corals as climate change and localized stresses resulting from destructive fishing, declining water quality from pollution, and the degradation of coastal habitats. Climate change causes rising water temperatures and more intense solar radiation, which lead to coral bleaching and disease often resulting in mass coral mortality.
That's only one. There are much more.
Shallow water corals have a symbiotic relationship with algae called zooxanthellae, which live in their soft tissues and provide the coral with essential nutrients and energy from photosynthesis and are the reason why corals have such beautiful colors. Coral bleaching is the result of a stress response, such as increased water temperatures, whereby the algae are expelled from the tissues, hence the term "bleaching." Corals that have been bleached are weaker and more prone to attack from disease. Scientists believe that increased coral disease also is linked to higher sea temperatures and an increase in run-off pollution and sediments from the land.
Researchers predict that ocean acidification will be another serious threat facing coral reefs. As oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, water acidity increases and pH decreases, severely impacting corals' ability to build their skeletons that form the foundation of reefs.
And how did all those carbon dioxide come from? From the things we do that harm the earth. See, not only the land is affected. Even the ocean is.
The 39 scientists who co-authored this study agree that if rising sea surface temperatures continue to cause increased frequency of bleaching and disease events, many corals may not have enough time to replenish themselves and this could lead to extinctions.
Those results show that as a group, reef-building corals are more at risk of extinction than all terrestrial groups, apart from amphibians, and are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Roger McManus, CI's vice president for marine programs,said that. "The loss of the corals will have profound implications for millions of people who depend on coral reefs for their livelihoods."
Coral experts participated in three workshops to analyze data on 845 reef-building coral species, including population range and size, life history traits, susceptibility to threats, and estimates of regional coral cover loss.
The reef-building corals assessment is one group of a number of strategic global assessments of marine species the GMSA has been conducting since 2006 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Other assessments are being conducted on seagrasses and mangroves that are also important habitat-forming species, all marine fishes, and other important keystone invertebrates. By 2012, the GMSA plans to complete its comprehensive first stage assessment of the threat of extinction for over 20,000 marine plants and animals, providing an essential baseline for conservation plans around the world, and tracking the extinction risk of marine species.
The results of the coral species assessment will be placed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in October 2008. If you want to take a look at the assestments, log on to http://www.sci.odu.edu/gmsa/about/corals.shtml.
(currently.)
Hope that you see the dangers the coral reefs are facing now.
Start now. Start saving the coral reefs.
Thanks.
Source: Science daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710142935.htm