Corals fall under anthozoans, which include sea pansies, sea fans and anemones. Coral reefs are usually made up of stony corals that has polyps which cluster in groups. Stony corals are responsible for building and laying foundations of reef structures. In the marine ecosystem, coral reefs are the most diverse of all the organisms according to Dubinsky and Stambler (2011, p. 241). Corals are usually found across oceans of the world, in deep and shallow water. However, reef-building corals only occur in shallow subtropical and tropical waters. This is due to the fact that algae in their tissues prefer 22 to 29 degrees Celsius of temperature and need light energy for photosynthesis. The deep-sea corals thrive in dark, cold water at depths of approximately six thousand below water surface. They comprise both stony and soft corals. They don’t use light or require warm water temperature for survival.
Coral reefs are endangered due to several stressors like overfishing or damage of fishing practices, erosion and development sediment and pollution. For instance, Southeast Asia reefs are at damage risk because of these factors. One of the greatest threats to coral reef is human activity, like mangrove forest destruction which absorbs naturally nutrients and sediment that could suffocate the coral reefs with algae blooms and silt. Also, natural effects can influence coral reefs growth. For instance, the 1998 and 2004 El-Niño rains led to rise in sea temperatures causing most coral reefs to be bleached. Again, due to global warming, the coral reefs are exposed to black and white band diseases.
Importance of coral reef can be attributed by some factors like, offering protection from damaging effects of tropical storms and the wave action, providing shelter and habitats for marine organisms, acting as the source of essential nutrients and nitrogen to food chains, as well as fixing nitrogen and carbon. They also assist in the recycling of nutrients. Additionally, coral reefs provide protection for many different fish species. They also control carbon dioxide in ocean water as well.
Without the carbon dioxide control by coral reefs, carbon dioxide levels would increase dramatically in water thereby affecting most living organisms on the planet. Coral reefs play important role in removing excretes from fish that are usually small calcium carbonate sediments. The sediments would otherwise hurt fish in water.
As coral reefs face unprecedented threats of both global and local stressors, effective management of them has become increasingly important focus for the communities at the coastal regions. This has led to the provision of several strategies to help protect coral reefs and facilitate sustainability. One strategy includes management of local stressors and facilitating recovery of the reefs that have been damaged. This includes addressing local stressors to people, mostly around the coastal regions. There has also been the fisheries management. Human fishing activities should be managed. Land based impacts should as well be reduced. This aims to ensure watershed activities are well managed in order to minimize downstream effects on coral reefs. Also, disturbances should be managed to help managers of coral reefs to appropriately prepare for any unpredictable occurrence like vessel groundings or outbreak of diseases. Again, ecological restoration accelerates recovery of coral reefs that are damaged (Perrow & Davy, 2002, p. 176).
Coral reefs are diverse features, whose importance is related to need in managing present natural resources and the need to understand tropical sea life evolution. They are controlled mainly by oceanographic processes. Due to the increasing population and its dependence on the natural resources, stresses are usually placed on coral reefs at an accelerating rate. National attention to perils of the reef systems have been brought due to the recent coral bleaching episodes. Coral reefs have a lot of importance in maintaining the marine ecosystem as well naturally. Therefore, strategic measures and management should be put in place to ensure their long time survival in the marine ecosystem.
References
Dubinsky, Z., & Stambler, N. (2011). Coral reefs: an ecosysem in transition. Dordrecht: Springer.
Perrow, M. R., & Davy, A. J. (2002). Handbook of ecological restoration: Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
