Management Issue - Coral Bleaching

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Unfortunately, this great natural treasure is at risk. As scientists came to understand more about the reef's complexities, a different picture emerged - over fishing, land-based pollution and coral bleaching exacerbated by increased sea temperatures due to global warming are all impacting upon its natural wealth.

For this purpose I’m going to be looking at coral bleaching and how severely it has impacted the natural wealth of the Great Barrier Reef. Coral bleaching is a process by which the coral host rids itself of zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae is a microscopic algae that lives in the tissue of coral, it’s what gives it its color and up to 90% of the energy it requires for survival. Once the corals are bleached their white skeleton is revealed and it begins to starve. The coral can regain its Zooxanthellae if weather conditions do better in time however, depending on how long that will take it may be severely damaged and can take decades to recover. This stress is likely to cause decreased coral growth and reproduction, and increased susceptibility to disease.

The cause for coral bleaching is high water temperature which has been proven to be a direct result of global warming. In 1998 and 2002 The Great Barrier Reef experienced mass coral bleaching and the frequency of coral bleaching episodes appears to be increasing.

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