Transcript human impacts on coral reefs

HUMAN IMPACTS ON CORAL REEFS
ARC344: Environment and Man
Ertuğ Cemal BARUTOĞLU
Pollution
Coral Reefs
•Corals are shelters for fishes
•Corals controls O2 and CO2 levels of sea
•Corals are natural barriers that protect nearby
shorelines from the eroding forces of the sea,
thereby protecting coastal dwellings, agricultural
land and beaches.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/274399--ship-pollution-kills-60-000
•Depending on their size, barrier reefs and atolls
can take from 100,000 to 30,000,000 years to
fully form
http://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/omg_animals/ancient-coral-reefs/
Overfishing
Sedimentation
http://newsdesk.si.edu/photos/coral-bleaching-2
•Sedimentation occurs when soil, silt, sand
enter the ocean and cause the water to become
very murky
•Sedimentation travels with wind and runoff
•Harbor construction, agriculture, dredging etc.
cause sedimentation
http://worldwildlife.org/photos/piles-of-fish-on-kayar-beach-senegal
Careless Recreation
http://wamuseum.com.au/dampier/explore_coralreefs.asp
•Overfishing occurs when people take more fish from the ocean than it can produce
•Fewer fish are available to provide food for other marine organisms
•Some fish eat algae and where there are less of these fish, algae grows too thick and
smothers the reef
•People are hunting those fishes with dynamites, poisons or gillnets and damage
ocean life and coral reefs as well
Climate Change
•Raw sewage
•Trash that settles on coral kills them
•Oil that ships leave kill all form of sea life
•Lost fishing gear
Conclusion
In conclusion, these behaviours of human cause bleaching and
extinction of one of the most beautiful visual exhibitions in the
•People use coral reefs for diving, snorkeling, fishing, boating
etc.
•People damage the coral reefs via kicking and standing on
them
•Boats damage the coral reefs via dropping anchors or passing
through shallow reefs
•Sometimes fishermen abandon their fishing gear
•People should be educated that those activities damage the
coral reefs
References
world which are coral reefs and these impacts will not be on
corals only but on our planet as well due to disappearing of sea
life. To prevent this extinction, people should be more awared
http://www.xikmo.com/en/?p=1987
http://www.davidsanger.com/stockimages/3-1100-68.factory
•Transportation, deforestation, factories etc. damage the atmospheric
balance and cause climate change
•Global warming cause temperature change and coral bleaching
and educated not only giving up from doing personal damage
on them but also stopping the activities causing climate change
like deforestation or air pollution.
http://www.reefresilience.org/Toolkit_Coral/C7a_Importance.html
T.P.Hughes et al., (2003), Climate change, human impacts and
resiliance of coral reefs (vol. 301, pp. 929-932)
B.S. Halpern et al., (2008), A global map of human impact on
marine ecosystems (vol. 319, pp. 948-951)