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How is Global Climate change

affecting coral reefs ?
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A.N.Other
 What are coral reefs?
• Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate
secreted by corals. Corals are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine
waters containing few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals,
and are formed by polyps that live together in groups. The polyps secrete a
hard carbonate exoskeleton which provides support and protection for the
body of each polyp. Reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear and sunny
waters.

• Often called “rainforests of the sea”, coral reefs (below) form some of the
most diverse ecosystems on earth. They occupy less than 1% of the world
ocean surface, about half the area of France, and they provide a home for
25% of all marine species, including fishes, molluscs, echinoderms and
sponges.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef
 Where the coral reefs can be found
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.oceanservice.noaa.gov
They are mostly in the North Pacific
ocean. Some of them are in the
Indian ocean and South Pacific.
On these maps the coral reefs are
shown by the pink and red blobs.
Most of the coral reefs are near the
Equator, between the tropics. The
most famous coral reef is the Great
Barrier reef which is in Australia.
Half of the worlds coral reefs are
endangered.
In most coral reefs there are less
corals and fishes than there were
only a few decades ago.
 What is global climate change ?
• Global Climate Change (or more commonly known as global warming) is
getting worse every year. Global warming is when the temperatures get
abnormally higher and higher. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change) conclude that most of the temperature increases since the
20th century was probably caused by the increases of greenhouse gases
from things such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation.
• These graphs show the change of temperatures over the years global
warming isn’t just recently. But what we’re doing now is more destructive
than then.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
 Global warming's affect on
Coral reefs
• Global climate change affects coral reefs by:
• Acidification
• The third and in many respects the greatest concern in the longer term, is that global change is causing
the world’s oceans to become more acidic.
• Coral loss
• There are many causes of local and global coral loss but human-induced climate change is one of
the main and undeniable threats. Climate change is having negative effects on coral populations
via at least three mechanisms.
• Coral disease
• Ocean warming can also indirectly kill corals by magnifying the effects of infectious diseases,
which are one of the primary causes of coral loss, particularly in the Caribbean
• Coral bleaching
• First, ocean warming is directly reducing coral cover through coral bleaching. Reef-building corals
contain plant-like organisms called zooxanthellae that live symbiotically within their tissue.
Coral bleaching is caused by elevated sea surface temperatures due to global climate change
which the animals cannot cope with..

www.eoearth.org/article/coral_reefs_and_climate_change
 How is Global Warming
Affecting the Ocean?
• Carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases trap heat, leading to global
warming. The increase in ocean temperature is 1° C over the last several ten years.
But even such changes have caused mass-coral mortality events around the world.
During some of the especially warm summers, over the last ten years.
• In the Pacific and Indian Oceans, coral bleaching is widespread. Causing mass
coral mortality in many countries. For example, in Palau, more than 90% of the corals
reefs are bleached and at least 50% perished. Even some isolated reefs were
impacted. In the Maldives, in the east Indian Ocean, bleaching caused coral cover to
plummet to only about 5%.

Predicted increases in CO2 under different IPCC

scenarios. (Source: IPCC 2001)

www.eoearth.org/article/coral_reefs_and_climate_change
 Coral Diseases
• Over the last 30 years scientists have found
about 30 coral diseases. The causes and effects
of coral disease are not properly understood.
Coral diseases can be caused by bacteria, fungi,
algae and worms. Coral disease have a major
impact on Caribbean reefs, where 80% of coral
has been lost to disease in the last 20 years.
About seven diseases have been recorded from
coral in the Great Barrier Reef and they are not
thought to be a major threat to the Reef.

www.eoearth.org/article/Threats_to_coral_reefs
 Steve Irwin and David
Attenborough
People are interested in the preservation of coral reefs
such as Steve Urwin and David Attenborough. David
Attenborough joined scientists July 2009 on the 7th to
warn that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already
above the level which could cause coral reefs to become
extinct in the future, with horrible effects for the oceans
and the people who depend upon them.
Steve Irwin, known everywhere as the “Crocodile Hunter,”
died on September 4 2006, after being pierced in the
chest by a stingray barb while filming an “Ocean’s
Deadliest” in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
 Conclusion and Future
I conclude that global climate change affects coral reefs by bleaching,
coral loss and ocean acidification. This is due to the gasses that trap heat
being in the ocean and bleaching the coral. In 2008 30% of all coral reefs
were facing extinction due to this problem. 2010 could be the turning point
to all this. If we act now we could change this and pursue the problem and
sort it out. Hopefully in years to come the coral reefs will still be around
and evolving as they should.

Evaluation
I mainly used Wikipedia and education sites such as enchanted learning.
Education sites were very useful because they have lots of information on
coral reefs.
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 Bibliography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
• www.enchantedlearning.com
• www.oceanservice.noaa.gov
• www.global-warming-awareness2007.org (1)
• www.bloggersbase.com (4)
• www.aquaviews.net (2)
• www.eoearth.org/article/coral_reefs_and_climate_change
• www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef
• www.eoearth.org/article/Threats_to_coral_reefs
• www.globalissues.org/article/173/coral-reefs
• www.worldproutassembly.org (3)
• www.sealthedeal2009.org (5)
• www.article.wn.com/view/2010/03/20/Close_encounters_of_the_stingray_kind_Steve_Irwin_Stingr
ay_C/
• www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/.../coral-attenborough
•

•www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef