Who is responsible for coral reefs

These changes lead to more coral bleaching events, increased storm destruction, and more. Ships that become grounded on coral reefs may cause immediate and long-term damage to reefs. Learn more and view a larger image. There are many ways that pollution can damage reefs. Debris like this plastic bag can quickly become entangled on a coral and smother it. Certain types of fishing can severely damage reefs. Trawlers catch fish by dragging nets along the ocean bottom.

Reefs in the net's path get mowed down. Long wide patches of rubble and sand are all that is left in their wake. Welcome What are Corals? Zooxanthellae What's That? How Do Stony Corals Grow? They are threatened by an increasing range of impacts including pollution, invasive species, diseases, bleaching, and global climate change. The rapid decline and loss of these valuable, ancient, and complex ecosystems have significant social, economic, and environmental consequences in the United States and around the world.

In , the President of the United States established the U. Satellite technology is also used to detect harmful algal blooms that can smother reefs and to monitor elevated sea surface temperatures, which can cause coral bleaching.

Coral Reef Watch provides the only global early-warning system of changes to coral reef environments, allowing NOAA to predict coral bleaching events. The resulting data provide a strong picture of the condition of U. This system consists of buoys deployed at reef sites that measure air temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, sea temperature, salinity, and tide levels. Every hour, these data are transmitted to scientists to help them understand conditions that may cause bleaching of coral reefs.

Polyps range in size from a pinhead to a foot in length. Each polyp lives in a symbiotic relationship with a host zooxanthellae that gives the coral its color. Zooxanthellae take in carbon dioxide, process it through photosynthesis, and give off oxygen and other important nutrients that are then used by the host polyp.

As in all photosynthesizing organisms, this means that corals must be exposed to a sufficient amount of sunlight. This confines most corals to shallow waters that are clean and clear. There are two kinds of corals: hard and soft. Hard corals Scleractinia , such as brain, star, staghorn, elkhorn and pillar corals have rigid exoskeletons, or corallites, that protect their soft delicate bodies.

Soft corals Gorgonians , such as sea fans, sea whips, and sea rods, sway with the currents and lack an exoskeleton. Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth, rivaled only by tropical rain forests. They are made up not only of hard and soft corals, but also sponges, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and much more.

Competition for resources such as food, space and sunlight are some of the primary factors in determining the abundances and diversity of organisms on a reef. Each component of a coral reef is dependent upon and interconnected with countless other plants, animals and organisms. This means that fluctuations in the abundance of one species can drastically alter both the diversity and abundances of others.