This blog contains information about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification in detail. It also contains information about Formation of Coral Reefs, Causes and Solutions for Ocean Acidification.
What are Corals?
Corals are the hard stony substance that is formed by certain marine invertebrates as an external skeleton forming large reefs in warm seas. These play important roles in Marine Ecosystem.
These are marine invertebrates that form colonies to survive in the Sea water. These colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. Corals are very important in Marine Ecosystems because they provide habitat to many of the sensitive Marine that cannot survive in the open ecosystem of Sea or Ocean. They are extremely important in maintaining marine ecosystem and their destruction cause many disturbances in the Marine Ecosystem. This blog is all about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What are Coral Reefs ?
Coral reefs refers to an Ecosystem that are famous for reef-building corals. These are most biodiverse Ecosystems in the Marine Environment. Some organisms cannot live in Marine Ecosystems without Coral Reefs.
Coral reefs contains a huge variety of Biodiversity living into it. These provide suitable habitats and food supply to the sensitive Marine organisms that cannot survive in open Marine Ecosystem. Surprisingly, Coral reefs supports over 75% of the Marine Biodiversity and protects it throughout their lives away from hazards. Many of the organisms could not survive in the Marine Environment if coral reefs will not be present. Coral reefs are made with layers of calcium carbonate and they are produced by living Corals. These can accommodate hundreds and thousands of individuals in its single colony. They are stick to the ground and stay at the same location throughout their lives. This blog is all about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What do you know about Formation of Corals?
The process of Coral Formation starts when a freely swimming coral larvae attach to submerged rock or other hard surfaces along the edges of islands and continents. These converts into living organisms called polyps and the Coral reefs are produced with thousands individual polyps growing together making coral reefs. When these corals grow and expand at the same location, they can transform into three Major Characteristic structures. These structures are as follows:
Fringing Reefs:
Fringing Reefs are the most common Coral Reefs. These reefs project seaward directly from the shore, forming borders along with the shoreline and surrounding islands.
Example of Fringing Reefs:
The Ningaloo Reefs in Western Australia, are Fringing Reefs.
Barrier Reefs:
Barrier reefs are not so commonly found reefs. These reefs also grows along the shoreline but they are at a greater distance than Fringing Reefs. They are separated with adjacent mass by a lagoon of open often deep water.
Example of Barrier Reefs:
The Green Australian Barrier Reefs, are Barrier Reefs in characteristics.
Atoll Reefs:
When the Fringing reefs grows from a volcanic island to a condition in which the island gets submerged in the water, it makes atoll reefs. These reefs grows higher and separates the reef lagoon from the sea water completely.
Example of Atoll Reefs:
Aldabra Atoll, is an Atoll Reef etc.
The corals when expand and grow in height, they can grow with the three characteristics explained above. Coral reefs after years and getting degraded may form islands and central lagoons in the Ocean water. It can take up to 10,000 years for complete formation of Coral Reefs. If we depend on the size and expansion, a barrier reef and atolls can take about 100,000 years to 30 million years to fully form. They are extremely sensitive and may be damaged with a slight difference in Oceanic Chemistry. But their existence is extremely beneficial for the Marine Biodiversity in multiple ways. This blog is all about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What do you know about Ocean Acidification?
Oceans absorbs excessive Carbon Dioxide that is present in the atmosphere. This CO2 decrease the pH of the Ocean water and increase the Acidity of Ocean. This condition is called as Ocean Acidification.
Ocean Acidification is a dangerous problem for the Marine Ecosystem and it cause extreme damage to the Marine Biodiversity. This is the reduction of pH of the ocean water through an extended period of time. The primary cause of ocean acidification is CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. The CO2 reacts with H2O to form Carbonic Acid. This acid can dissolve and damage skeletons of Aquatic Species and can cause their death. The animals with skeletons are very weak inside and they cannot survive openly in the Marine Environment without a skeleton. So, this is a great cause of destruction of Aquatic species as well as aquatic ecosystem. This blog is all about Coral reefs and Ocean Acidification.
Which Marine animals are effected by the Ocean Acidification?
The effected animals by Ocean Acidification have a common factor that is their Skeleton. The skeletons of most of the tiny Aquatic animals dissolves into the Acidic water and they are forced to expose in front of the Aquatic Hazards. Following are some groups of animals that are effected by Ocean Acidification:
Shell-forming Animals:
This group includes all the animals that forms skeleton and protect themselves with it. These animals includes oyster, mussels, urchins, starfish etc. Ocean Acidification makes it difficult for them to build their shells and skeletons. And the already built skeletons may dissolve in Acidic Ocean Water.
Pteropods:
These are also known as Sea Butterflies. Pteropods are tiny sea snails that are very important part of food chain for many organisms including whales. They also have the same issue with their shells, that they may dissolve in acidic water within days. Their destruction disrupt the Food chain at a great level.
Fish Larvae:
Fish larvae are the initial stages of fish development that swim around freely in the Ocean Environment. These are extremely sensitive and they can only smell the predators for avoiding them. In the condition of Ocean Acidification the fish larvae are unable to smell the predators and they become prey easily.
Corals:
The most dangerous impact of Ocean Acidification includes the Damage or Destruction of Coral Reefs. As we already know that Corals are extremely sensitive organisms in the Marine Ecosystem. They are extremely effected by the slight variations in the Ocean Chemistry. When the Coral Reefs are in contact with the condition of Ocean Acidification, they react with the building block of Coral skeleton that is, Carbonate ion. The Carbonic Acid produced by combination of Water and CO2 results in the dissolution of Carbonate Ions. With this variation in Ocean Chemistry, the Corals starts to dissolve in the Ocean water. And the tiny and sensitive organisms in the Coral Reefs, are exposed to the acidic environment and eventually they die. In this way, Ocean acidification has various negative impacts on the Marine Biodiversity.
These the organisms and systems that are face negative effects of Ocean Acidification. The disturbance in life activities of Marine organisms and their food chain disturbs the whole Marine Ecosystem and cast many long-term impacts on the Aquatic Organisms. This blog is all about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What are the Major Causes of Ocean Acidification?
Ocean Acidification is a Natural Process and it cannot be completely stopped by humas. The thing that drives Ocean Acidification is only the CO2 concentration in the Atmosphere and the Environment. The only way to control and reduce Ocean Acidification is controlling the Carbon emissions that emits in the Environment. Following are the Major Causes of Ocean Acidification:
Acid Rain:
Acid rain delivers the liquid form of COX, SOX and NOx into our Environment. This is the direct Natural cause of Ocean Acidification because the acidic water is directly added to the Ocean Water to make it acidic. If the Acid rain does not directly adds into the water, then it adds through infiltration or runoff from the land and vegetation ending up into the Ocean. This is a big cause of Ocean Acidification.
Industrial Acitivities:
Industrial Activities includes all the processes from the manufacturing, processing, transportation and and disposal of the goods and products from the industries. These activities adds tons of Carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the Air. Carbon dioxide excessively adds into the Environment and the Air and ends up in the Ocean when it extends from the limit of the Environment. Anthropogenic Activities are great cause of Ocean Acidification.
Respiration:
Most of the living organisms inhales oxygen from breathing and exhale Carbon Dioxide in return. As a whole, a lot of CO2 is added into the atmosphere through respiration. We cannot control it or prevent it from happening because, it is a natural mechanism. This is one of the major Natural Cause of Ocean Acidification.
Deforestation:
Deforestation is the cutting of the trees for welfare of Humans. It can be in order to get space for Urbanization or for the supply of Forest resources. Forests are natural Carbon sinks and are cleansers of the Air and Atmosphere. Deforestation lets the carbon dioxide to stay into the atmosphere because the trees are cut in this process. This leads to the accumulation of Excessive CO2 concentration in the atmosphere leading to Ocean Acidification.
These are some of Major Causes of Ocean Acidification. They completely rely on the concentration of CO2 into the atmosphere. If the Carbon emissions will be under control, there are less chances of Ocean Acidification in the Oceans. This blog is all about Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What are the Solutions for Ocean Acidification?
The only solution to control Ocean Acidification is to prevent Anthropogenic Carbon Emissions in the Environment. If excessive Carbon dioxide will not be present in the atmosphere, there will be less chance of Ocean Acidification and disturbance in Ocean Chemistry. Following are some of the Solutions for Ocean Acidification:
Reduction of Overall GHG emissions:
If we will control overall Greenhouse Gases emissions that are Anthropogenically emitted into the Environment, there will be less chances of Accumulation of CO2 into the atmosphere. This will highly reduce the chances of Ocean Acidification.
Avoid Fossil Fuel Burning:
Burning of Fossil Fuels is the major cause of GHG emissions including Carbon emissions around the world. If we will avoid using Fossil Fuel Burning and promote the use of Renewable Energy sources to avoid excessive Carbon Emissions in the Atmosphere, we can avoid Ocean Acidification.
Keep the Beaches Clean:
We throw plastic wastes and other hazardous wastes on the beaches. They adds into the Ocean water and with passing time they release acids and chemicals into the water contributing into Ocean Acidification. If no waste will add into the Ocean there is less chance of Ocean Acidification.
Increase Number of Useful Species:
There are some useful species that uses Carbon dioxide as a source of energy. These specialized organisms absorbs CO2 from the Marine Environment and reduce the Acidity as they as they survive in the Oceans. This is the most effective way to avoid or reduce Ocean Acidification from Ocean water.
Avoid Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides:
The use of fertilizers and pesticides is good for increasing the yield for Economic benefit. But through runoff and infiltration they are added into the surrounding Water Resources and those water resources falls in the ocean at the end. This adds acids and acidic substances directly into the ocean increasing the Ocean Acidification.
Plant Trees:
If we will plant a huge amounts of trees to overcome the Impacts of Deforestation, more CO2 will be absorbed by the trees. There will be less CO2 present in the atmosphere to be added into the Ocean to cause Ocean Acidification.
These are some of the Solutions for Ocean Acidification. In short, by reducing the use of Carbon containing compounds in industries and agriculture, or avoiding burning the Fossil fuels, we can reduce or prevent Ocean Acidification. By following these strategies collectively we can work for the avoidance of Ocean Acidification. This blog contains information Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
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