Featured Image: XL Catlin Seaview Survey via Truthdig
By: Eva Gruber
With tragic news of recent mass bleaching events affecting over 90% of the Great Barrier Reef earlier this year, the struggle to save our blue planet’s coral reefs is now more urgent than ever.
People all around the world find themselves asking what they can do to help. Through science we can find answers and solutions to our societies greatest problems, and a recent study published by the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports gives us the place to start.
The solution in fact might prove itself obvious when we look at the extent of the problem. Researchers observed that even remote and isolated reefs far from human settlements suffer in the same ways as nearshore reefs.
Image Credit: Paul Nicklen via NFWF
Pollution and overfishing from nearby communities have definite consequences to the reefs nearby. But if these are the primary threats to coral reefs, then those remote reefs should be preserved from damage. This was not the case. The basic truth is that humans are impacting coral reefs – and indeed the oceans – on a global level.
Lead author John Bruno, a marine ecologist at the University of North Carolina was “surprised to discover that even those reefs most isolated from local impacts like pollution and fishing were no better off in terms of coral and seaweed cover…this finding totally overturns a major paradigm in reef ecology and conservation: the assumption that isolated reefs are near-pristine and more resilient to global warming.”
What this means is that fighting pollution and overfishing will hold few long-term benefits if we do not make greenhouse gas emissions our primary target. Climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs (and other sensitive ecosystems all around the planet).
Image Credit: Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News
Climate-change-driven consequences to the ocean include warming sea temperatures, increased acidity as more carbon dioxide (from fossil fuels) is absorbed from the atmosphere, and rising sea levels.
Corals are sensitive organisms with a small range of optimal conditions in which they can thrive. With warmer temperatures, corals become stressed and expel their symbiotic algae, which they rely on for nutrients. This is what leads to bleaching.
Higher acidity will actually prevent the coral polyps from forming their calcium carbonate skeletons. At higher levels of acidity, corals and entire reefs could erode and dissolve. Additionally, rising sea levels plunge corals into deeper water, which may move them outside the ideal range in which they can photosynthesize.
Climate change is the biggest threat that this planet has to face. Serious ecological and societal damage has already been done. There is still hope, but to save our planet and its oceans we must all take part.
The easiest way to help coral reefs is to cut back on your personal use of fossil fuels. One way to do this is to drive less, and walk/bike/use public transportation more. Weatherproof your home to use less energy in heating and cooling. Shop smart and be aware of how wasteful much of our packaging is. And of course, reduce, reuse, recycle (and refuse single use plastics).