Coral Reefs’ Bleaching and its Consequences:
Coral Reefs’ massive bleaching is just a first signal warning about the seriousness of the change that is occurring in the marine environment.Punctual actions from human beings, for long time, have already been causing the destruction of corals and marine life imbalance, either by overfishing, excessive marine organisms collected, mangroves destroyed or other harmful actions.Several organizations around the world are conducting activities for those imbalances correction:
- Scientists are searching solutions,
- Actions for public awareness are intensified,
- Rules definition for marine biodiversity management and conservation and protection are been improved.
- Marine Protected Areas definition to safeguard the coral reefs and marine life.
However, as everything is interconnected in nature, the CO2 released into the atmosphere has cause Global Warming, which in turn caused major changes in the sea’s habitat by several factors:
- Increased Sea water temperature, from global warming, with the weather phenomena formation like El Nino and El Nina;
- Acidification of the seas by increased CO2 in the atmosphere and the ocean water;
- Intensification of the high tension from electromagnetic emanations and Beta radioactivity from Earth’s core, since 2012;
- Increased in the intensity of UV rays by reducing the ozone layer;
- Ocean level rise from melting glaciers and the eternal ice of mountains peaks;
- Changes in sea salinity;
- Changes in ocean’s currents and its oxygenation;
- Increased of some coastal areas contamination by cellular antennas microwaves irradiation;
- Increased storms, hurricanes and tsunamis in the seas.
For this challenge the solution depends on an unified effort of great proportions of all major governments and economic forces, that will have to focus on high investments in research for the Global Climate rebalancing. The COP21 already have established the limit to 1.5ºC of Global Warming until 2100. We already have a number of efforts in the generation of clean energies and in the reduction in the emission of CO2, but the proposals are still insufficient to corals.
This marine habitat situation has been causing the increase of stress especially in the coral reefs, increasing diseases occurrences that lead to bleaching and corals death.Within this context the increase in oceans temperature is just the straw that has been causing an excess to organics dysfunctions affecting the symbiotic relations.
The result is the occurrence of massive “zooxanthellae” dissociation of their hosts and the large-scale bleaching (white coral calcium surface exposure).This phenomenon has already destroyed 50% of coral reefs in the world, tending to increase every year, mainly due to increased acidification and seawater temperature. Recent information indicates the loss of coral hovering in the range of 20% to 90%, depending on the location.
If no local conservation action will be adopted, since by the COP21 agreement the proposed targets are still far short of the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° C or 2° C and will not produce effects in a timely manner to save the corals, the trend will be the extinction of corals in the region.
Researchers have been pointing to new consequences that come with increased acidification that will prevent the processing and formation of calcium by all organisms that produce and depend on it.The continuity of the corals death will dramatically impact the marine life and the human being himself, and the awareness lack to taking attitudes to nature rebalance, also will cause the icy melting that will can begin to release a large volumes of methane gas and CO2, trapped in the poles, causing the necessity to facing a strong sea acidification in the future.
Currently, some governments, are creating Marine Protected Areas in order to strengthen the corals to make them more resistant to bleaching and other are also using the technique of coral culture for the recovery of bleached regions.
Although these actions are of high value to increase the resilience of corals and marine life, by the taken from local causes such as pollution, overfishing and others, still is need a way to avoid the coral bleaching, caused by the consequences of Global Warming.
We present in corals survival topic, the help available from the Universe, to coral reefs and marine life, to increase their capacity of resistant and resilience, in front of the consequences of Global Warming.