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. This blog also contains Effects, Scientific Studies and Case Studies of the response of Coral Reefs in the condition of 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 25% 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. Ocean Acidification combined many disciplines such as Biology, Chemistry, Oceanography, etc. in their occurrence. So, it can be considered as Interdisciplinary in nature. 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. This represents the long-term effects of Ocean Acidification on Coral Polyps.
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. This is the major Human activity causing Ocean Acidification. 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. Industrial Activities are human-driven 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. This is a Human-driven cause of Ocean Acidification.
These are some of Human-induced and Natural 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 is the Coral Physiology on the response of Ocean Acidification?
Following steps involves in the Coral Physiology in response to Ocean Acidification:
Weakening Skeletons:
High levels of CO2 in water or lower pH leads to the Calcification of the Calcium Carbonate skeletons of the Marine animals in sea water. Their skeletons start to dissolve in water and so that they are not protected, their growth is inhibited and they become more vulnerable to death in the Marine Environment.
Bleaching:
Bleaching is the next step after weakening of the skeletons. This is the process in which the Corals expel the algae present in them and turn them into white color. The main reason behind bleaching is the disturbance in Photosynthesis due to high CO2 levels and low Oxygen in sea water. This results in mortality and are vulnerable to disease and starvation.
Loss of Productivity:
Productivity of Coral reefs are directly related to both mechanisms i.e. Photosynthesis and Respiration. Both of these processes are disrupts because of Ocean Acidification. This is the reason, there is a rapid decrease in productivity in Corals. At the same time, it ruins the relation between their symbiotic dinoflagellates, that may lead to more issues in Marine Environment.
Gene Expansion:
The Ocean Acidification condition also leads to the issues of Gene Expansion in Coral Reefs. It may disturb the metallic suppression. High levels of CO2 can cause Oxidative Stress. Apoptosis can also occur due to lower pH level in the sea water. All of these factors are enough for restricting multiplication of cells and Gene expansion in Coral Reefs.
These are some of the Physiological Process of Coral Reefs in response to Ocean Acidification. These are the long-term effects of Ocean Acidification.
How Ocean Acidification effects Corals?
Following are some of the visible effects of Ocean Acidification on Corals:
Reduced Biodiversity:
As we know that, Coral reefs supports over 25% of the Marine Biodiversity to survive in the Marine Environment. The destruction of Coral Reefs damages the shelter and habitat of the marine organisms and they die eventually. That is why, Ocean Acidification reduce Biodiversity in the Coral Reefs.
Dissolving Skeletons:
The species which have Calcium Carbonate skeletons are badly targeted by Ocean Acidification. The acidified Ocean water dissolves the skeleton into the water and the sensitive organisms gets exposed to the Acidified Marine Environment. This cause the death of Marine Biodiversity at a great rate.
Disruption of Symbiotic Relationships:
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, these Marine organisms provide essential nutrients to the Corals. Ocean acidification disrupt the relationship that leads to coral bleaching. It destroy the normal functioning of Coral reefs and disturb the organisms which live in their shelter.
These are some effects of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs.
What are the Solutions for reducing Carbon dioxide Emissions (Actual Cause of 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.
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 add 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, the trees absorb more CO2. There will be less CO2 present in the atmosphere to dissolve into the Ocean to cause Ocean Acidification.
Policy and Regulations:
The Coral Reef Conservation Policies includes Paris Agreement, United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development etc. These policies, regulations and laws will help us to reduce CO2 emissions worldwide and eventually help us to reduce Ocean Acidification in the Sea Water.
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. Adaptation of Climate Change and also help in reducing the Coral Acidification at great extent. By following these strategies collectively we can work for the avoidance of Ocean Acidification. This blog contains information Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidification.
What are some of the Conservation Strategies for Coral Reefs?
Following are some of the Conservation Strategies to protect Coral Reefs from 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 also reduce the Acidity as they as they survive in the Oceans. These species work for the reduction of acidity from ocean water. This is the most effective way to avoid or reduce Ocean Acidification from Ocean water.
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. Most of the beaches are full of wastes that end up into the ocean. If no waste will add into the Ocean there is less chance of Ocean Acidification.
Coral Restoration:
Coral Restoration projects includes the projects such as Coral Farming and Transplantation. In the process of Coral Farming, the corals are grows in special Marine Environments at hard surfaces under water. While in the process of Coral Transplantation refers to the translocation of Corals from threatening Environments to safe and suitable environment.
Reducing Local Pollutants:
Pollutants such as toxic gases, harmful substances and materials in the water, are major sources of Ocean Acidification. The local pollutants means the pollutants that adds into the Environment from nearby places or same location. If we work on the reduction of Local Pollutants, we can control the damage of Coral Reefs and avoid Ocean Acidification.
Marine Protected Areas:
Marine Protected Areas (MPA) refers to the specialized Marine environments that are established to farm or conserve the Marine Ecosystems and species. We can establish such areas in order to protect or farm Coral Reefs in order to increase their number and protect the Marine Environments with their help.
Adding Nutrients to the Ocean:
We can avoid the excessive percentage of CO2 to accumulate into the Ocean by adding nutrients in order to neutralize it. The addition of nutrients help in maintaining the proper Oceanic Composition and help the Marine species to survive in the Marine Environment. This is a costly way to conserve Corals.
These are some of the Conservation Strategies to protect Coral Reefs from Ocean Acidification.
What are some Coral Reef Acidification Scientific Studies?
There are many Scientific Studies on the Coral Reefs responses to Ocean Acidification. Following are some of the Scientific Studies that shows the response of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs:
Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification:
This scientific study shows that the coral reefs are likely to degrade in next 20 years due to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. It also highlights the importance of rapid advances in the Paris Climate Change Agreement to mitigate these effects on Coral Reefs.
Growth Response of Reef-building Corals to Ocean Acidification:
This research conducted three-month laboratory experiment to asses physiological parameters under different pH, with six scleractinian Coral species. The study found that growth and also the calcification-related responses alone may not fully reflect coral susceptibility to ocean acidification.
The Indirect effects of Ocean Acidification on Corals and Coral Community:
This is a scientific review that provide the information about effects of acidification on reef-building corals from a cellular to population scale. It also highlights the indirect effects of altered species interaction such as increases in abundance of Bioeroders etc.
These are few Scientific Studies highlighting the responses of Coral Reefs on Ocean Acidification. These also show Coral reef Symbiotic relationships and Acidification.
What are some Case Studies of Coral Acidification?
Following are some Case Studies on Coral Acidification:
Coral reefs near natural CO2 vents:
Studies of coral reefs near underwater volcanic vents that release high CO2 levels provide evidences into how corals responds to increasing acidity, showing that some species are more resilient than others and they vary in their response.
Florida Keys coral reefs:
Florida Keys has identified areas where local factors like seagrass beds might partially buffer against ocean acidification. This Research highlights the importance of considering regional variations in Coral Reef responses on Ocean Acidification.
Caribbean coral reefs:
Caribbean coral reefs and Acidification is a prominent case study on Coral Acidification. These are also experiencing significant impacts from ocean acidification, further emphasizing the global nature of this threat with declining in health, difficulty in making skeletons etc.
These are the Case Studies showing the effects of Coral Acidification. Other than these case studies of Coral Acidification includes Ocean Acidification and Tropical reef Ecosystems.
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