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Coral Bleaching Research Paper

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Coral Bleaching Research Paper
English 1000

October 14, 2011

Warming Up to the Truth

Being an avid hydrophile, I wanted to explore a topic that involved the world of life in the ocean. This allowed me start wondering about coral reefs inside the ocean and caused me to raise the question about how and why some of these become bleached. A number of coral reefs that have been bleached lasted such a long time as luminous organisms filled with color and beauty before suddenly turning white and dull. How does something like that last such a long time and then just change so rapidly, almost overnight it seems? I figured it has to have something to do with the changing of its environment, but why are changes in the environment just now starting to cause this phenomenon? After exploring this idea of coral bleaching, I present the question; is coral bleaching a sign of global warming?

The first thing that I needed to do after presenting these questions is to find out more about what exactly coral bleaching is and get a little more in depth information about it. For the most part, the idea behind coral bleaching is actually fairly …show more content…
Most would think that this happening would have absolutely no affect on us at all, but actually that would be completely wrong. Not only does global warming have a direct impact on us as well as the coral, but the coral itself being distressed also has a giant impact on us and the ecosystem. According to a website I found, WWF (World Wildlife Fund), "Coral reefs are extremely important for biodiversity, providing a home to over 25% of all marine life. They are also vital for people and business. They provide nurseries for many species of commercially important fish, protection of coastal areas from storm waves, and are a significant attraction for the tourism industry" (Impacts of Global Warming on
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