The Great Barrier Reef

Within the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia there lies an extravagant ecosystem that is home to over 11,000 different species, the Great Barrier Reef. The fish swim by the mollusks grazing on the coral, which is vibrant pink in most locations yet in some, seems dead and dull. In between the natural beauty are signs of human actions. As beautiful as the reef is overall, it is dying and disappearing at an increasing rate each year. Some of the possible reasons for this include pesticide pollution, coral bleaching, and exploitation of the reef. Regardless, the reef is being destroyed at an alarming rate, degrading the ecosystem and ruining the beauty of nature. As humans continue to pollute the land in their daily lives, the negative effects are shown through the destruction and negative changes of natural features, such as the Great Barrier Reef (Torr).

The most obvious sign of degradation of the Great Barrier Reef is the difference in the appearance of the area itself. There is a nearly equal mixture of healthy and dead or dying corals, those that are healthy being of powder blues and brilliant pinks, while the dead ones are dull covered in patches of dirty brown algae. Not only is there less color and healthiness within the coral, there is also an obvious sign of less diversity in species than there ever has been, and also lower numbers of the species that are still there. Another answer to the unusually high degradation rate is farm runoff. There is a large area of farmland not too far from the sea and all of the runoff from the farms end up in the ocean with the coral, causing major destruction. Bleaching is a less extreme threat, but with rising ocean temperatures the coral is losing its color and vibrancy. The increase in ocean temperature is caused by an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which traps heat and increases global temperature, both on land and in the water. When the zooxanthellae plants are exposed to higher temperatures than they...