Pollution Prevention
Queensland
Coral
Corals are invertebrate animals belonging to a big group of colourful and absorbing animals named Cnidaria. Other animals in this group that you may have seen in rock pools or pools or on the beach include jellyfish and sea anemones. Although Cnidarians exhibit a wide variety of colours, shapes and sizes, they all share the same distinguishing characteristics; a simple stomach with a single mouth opening surrounded by stinging tentacles. Each individual coral animal is called a polyp, and most live in groups of hundreds to thousands of genetically identical polyps that form a 'colony'. The colony is formed by a process called budding, which is where the original polyp literally grows copies of itself.
Coral reefs need clean, clear water to survive. When sediments enter the water, they smother coral preventing their growth, and preventing the photosynthesis of the phytoplankton on which the coral feeds. The pollution also causes the water quality to decrease as well as the ph levels of the water to decrease meaning higher acidity and lower water clarity. Pollution can also make corals more vulnerable to disease, impede coral growth and reproduction, and cause changes in food structures on the reef. The pollution (mainly fertilisers and pesticides) increase algal blooms as the algae thrive off the extra nutrients brought to the ecosystem with the pollution. This rapid growth in algae result in a large food supply for the Crown of Thorn Starfish. Once older these Starfish attatch to the coral and over a period of time, kill the coral. This has resulted in the gradual depression of the coral population and is accountable for 21% of the coral loss over the last 27 years. All of these factors contribute significantly to the carrying capacity of the corals.
There are many natural factors that have resulted in the decline in the populations of coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Natural disturbance events that affect coral reefs include, tropical storms, outbreaks of a coral predators, disease, extended periods of elevated or low water temperatures, and extremely low tides. For example tropical storms result in the loss of 24% of the loss of coral in the Great Barrier Reef. The remaining 5% is due to factors such as disease, salinity and other factors. Although these events disturb the reefs and may kill a significant amount of coral, they are part of a natural cycle that reefs experience and the reef ecosystem may benefit in other ways. The destruction caused by a hurricane, for example, opens space for reef organisms that had been excluded by larger and longer lived corals. Hurricanes also flush out accumulated sediment within the reef and create more substrate for organisms to settle and grow on. A healthy reef ecosystem will eventually recover from natural disturbance events. However, when these natural disturbances occur to a reef system that has been impacted by human activities, the reef system may have a reduced or even no capacity to rebound. Finally, the corals are eaten by angelfish that ground up the coral in order to get phytoplankton from it.
They typically live in the compact compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Corals grow in warm shallow waters that receive plenty of light. 98% of their energy from the organic byproducts of photosynthesis thanks to a symbiotic relationship with algae. Most tropical shallow coral species also capture and consume live prey using their tentacles. They normally feed off phytoplankton and are normally eaten by Crown of Thorn Starfish.
The coral is in rapid decline. Over the last 27 years, over 51% of the coral has been either killed or destroyed by a large numbers of factors. This leaves Australia with very little remaining coral in the Great Barrier Reef. This means in as little as twenty years if we don’t do anything, the level of pollution will grow to a point where the Great Barrier Reef and its coral ( a primary constituent of the Great Barrier Reef's ecosystem and
biodiversity) will be in such decline it may not exist anymore. The Great Barrier Reef is also under threat of being removed from the World Heritage Organisation due to lack of action by the Australian government. This means that someone has to take the initiative of preventing these corals from dying out otherwise there will be even less protection for the reef.
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1 "International Coral Reef Initiative | an informal partnership to ..." 25 Feb. 2015 <http://www.icriforum.org/>
2 "Pollution Can Smother Coral Reefs, Lower Water Quality, and Make Corals More Susceptible to Disease." How Does Pollution Impact Corals? Web. 22 Feb. 2015. <http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/corals/pollution.html>.
3 "Ecosystems: Coral Reefs Natural and Anthropogenic Influences." Ecosystems: Coral Reefs Natural and Anthropogenic Influences. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
4 "International Strategy,2010-2015 - NOAA's Coral Reef ..." 2009. 25 Feb. 2015 <http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/currentgoals/resources/intl_strategy.pdf>
5 "Australia's Great Barrier Reef Will 'Disappear' Within Two Decades With No Intervention."Business Insider. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.