chasing coral

Question 1

how much coral has been lost in the last 30 years

Answer 1

• Last 30 yrs - lost 50% of all coral

Question 2

what are coral made of?

Answer 2

• Coral - animal
  
  • Polyp - part of the animal
  • Coral individual made of up thousands of polyps - a mouth surrounded by tentacles, contain small micro algae in their parts
  • Plants photosynthesize - food for coral
  • Animal growing over skeleton and depositing skeleton beneath it

Question 3

coral night vs day function

Answer 3

• Photosynth in the day

* At night expand polyps, stinging cells catch prey

Question 4

what occurs in “bleaching”

Answer 4

When a coral’s environment becomes too warm, these algae begin to produce toxins that harm the coral, giving it no choice but to expel their tiny companions, leaving behind transparent tissue and stark white skeletons – coral bleaching. Without these algae, coral lose their major food source and begin to perish.
• Photosynthesis impaired, coral tries to get rid of non functional plants - lost food source, white bc skeleton visible, begins to starve
• Fuzzy - indication the coral died

Question 5

which corals are reef building?

Answer 5

• Montiporas - reef building corals

Question 6

3 bleaching events?

Answer 6

through cycles, but now the average has changed - warm temps keep getting warmer
• First bleaching event in 1980s - 97/98 first global mass bleaching event
2010- Second global scale
2015 - potential of the third mass global bleaching event

Question 7

how does the loss of coral reefs impact humans

Answer 7

• Hawaii - 4.7 degrees hotter than it should be for time of year
  
  • Heat wave around the planet
  • Extreme biodiversity in great barrier reef
  • Economies, way of live, jobs, protein source - many rely on coral reefs
  • Medications derived from corals
  • Coral reefs are the nursery -25% of ocean relying on coral reefs
  • Coral reefs breakwater -prevent cyclones etc
  • Basis of ecosystem

Question 8

predicted outcome for coral if climate continues to warm

Answer 8

It is predicted that if nothing changes, by 2034 there will be severe bleaching events every year, and by the end of the century every reef in the world will bleach.

Question 9

what happens if temps increase 2 degrees

Answer 9

temperatures rise even by 2°, corals will bleach more often with less recovery time.