How Does Global Warming Affect The Great Barrier Reef

Stepan Zhigulin
Research Assignment
Great Barrier Reef
Intro:
Coral reefs are like the rainforests of the sea, and like those here on land they are being destroyed. But why should you care? Just imagine scuba diving around the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. You are now probably picturing vibrant colours and a bustling ecosystem. However if you decided to visit right now you’d mostly be seeing the white skeletons of corals, and that is claimed to be because of the Global warming, but is it?

Greenhouse effect:
To understand of why the global warming is happening, let's take a look at the greenhouse effect and enhanced effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that keeps the Earth’s surface warm. When the Sun’s radiation reaches the
The reef structure is built by billions of tiny transparent organisms, known as coral polyps, with thousands of them in each chunk. The polyps produce calcium carbonate a white mineral that forms intricate crystal skeletons. However most corals cannot survive alone. Therefore Coral reefs live in a relationship with the millions of microscopic algae called zooxanthellae. Coral reef provides nutrients and protection to zooxanthellae. Algae helps coral to grow faster by providing it with photosynthesis using the sunlight to convert these into more complex nutrients like sugar, which the polyps then eat too. Also the zooxanthellae gives the coral it colours, the coral tissues are clear and these algae come in all kinds of different colours, which is why coral reefs are normally so colourful. (Jones, 2016) Now listen closely, when the conditions change like the water temperatures staying higher than usual for many weeks, the zooxanthellae leaves, taking their bright colours with them and leaving behind those pale calcium carbonate skeletons. White, unhealthy corals are called bleached. Bleached corals are weak, less able to combat disease and are not able to produce energy. Global Warming is raising the temperature around the GBR and this is resulting in coral Bleaching. This is the third such event of this nature that scientists have recorded. When temperatures heat too much, the
From the largest apex predators such as the White-tipped Reef Shark all the way down to microscopic organisms called Phytoplankton, no one marine creature could exist without another, and this is reflected in the fact that if one life form becomes endangered, the rest of the reef suffers. It is thought that about a quarter of all marine life depends on the coral reefs in some way. So if the coral bleaching will not be resolved the extinction of the GBR might cause a serious environmental problem. Let's take a look at the Great Barrier Reef food chain picture. If the marine algae will become extinct with the corals then the plankton, the giant clam and the krill won’t have enough food, which leads to the decrease of humpback whales, whale sharks, box jellyfish and clown fish and the food chain balance gets interrupted. (Environment.gov.au, 2016)

Conclusion:
The GBR is over 2,300 kilometres, it consist of nearly 3000 individual reefs, 900 islands and thousands of different types of plants. (Greatbarrierreef.com.au, 2016) And it would be sad to loose such a beauty, only because of the human stupidity. I believe that there is global warming happening in the world and it is affecting the Great Barrier Reef. It should be carefully managed because if the GBR will become extinct then the balance of the entire oceanic