HEALTH SCIENCES PRESENTATION

Human Impact on Aquatic Ecosystems

By: Siona Puthran

Coral Reef Damage

Problem: Coral reefs are a biodiversity hot spot, they protect shorelines, provide food and medicine, and are major ecotourism spots. Yet they are alarmingly disappearing.

Importance of Coral Reefs

• Support most of marine life
• They support a lot of the biodiversity in marine life
• Help marine life with shelter
• Provide food and help marine biodiversity reproduce
• Etc

Human Impact on Coral Reefs

• Pollution
• Overfishing
• Destructive fishing practices
• Mining coral for building materials

Human pratices have increasingly destroyed coral reefs, the biggest impact is pollution. The sediments that runoff from agriculture have negatively effected the overall health of coral reefs around the world.

It is projected by 2050s that most of the coral reef will have experienced high levels of damage and 95% of coral reefs will experience high thermal stress and potential bleaching. It is estimated that only 15% of coral reefs will be in areas where the conditions are suitable to grow the plants.

What is the current forecast for coral reef populations according to modern trends?

What could or will change this with adjusting trends in the problem areas?

Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could help the climate crisis and overall benefit the coral reef and protect it from further damage. As the temperature increases throughout the Earth it puts the coral reef in more and more danger.

Work Cited

Gomstyn, Alice. “Climate Change Predictions: Anticipating and Adapting to a Warming World.” IBM Blog, 27 Feb. 2024, www.ibm.com/blog/climate-change-future/. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Anthropogenic Threats to Corals - Corals: NOAA’s National Ocean Service Education.” Human Threats to Corals: Corals Tutorial, 1 June 2013, oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral09_humanthreats.html#:~:text=Pollution%2C%20overfishing%2C%20destructive%20fishing%20practices,around%20the%20world%20every%20day.

THANK YOU!