Save the Coral Reefs!

Some pics

2008-09-07T14:31:00.006+08:00

Credits to Miss Dawn Lim of CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School, Biology Teacher, for taking the pictures when scuba diving

IYOR info

2008-09-07T14:17:00.003+08:00

International Year of the Reef 2008

The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them.

All individuals, corporations, schools, governments, and organizations are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in IYOR 2008.

Ten years ago, 1997 was declared the International Year of the Reef (IYOR). The first IYOR campaign was initiated in response to the increasing threats and loss of coral reefs and associated ecosystems, like mangroves and sea grasses. IYOR 97 was a global effort to increase awareness and understanding of coral reefs, and support conservation, research and management efforts.

IYOR 97 proved to be very successful, with over 225 organizations in 50 countries and territories participating, over 700 articles in papers and magazines generated, hundreds of scientific surveys undertaken, and catalyzed conservation and policy initiatives, as well as numerous local and global organizations dedicated to coral reef conservation.

More information on IYOR 1997 can be found here: http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/coral-reef.html

Recognizing that ten years after IYOR 97 there continues to be an urgent need to increase awareness and understanding of coral reefs, and to further conserve and manage valuable coral reef and associated ecosystems, the International Coral Reef Initiative designated 2008 as the International Year of the Reef (IYOR 2008).

IYOR 2008 will:

Strengthen awareness about the ecological, economic, social and cultural value of coral reefs and associated ecosystems
Improve understanding of the critical threats to coral reefs and generate both practical and innovative solutions to reduce these threats
Generate urgent action at all levels to develop and implement effective management strategies for conservation and sustainable use of these ecosystems.

ICRI IYOR 2008 Ad Hoc Committee

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) IYOR Ad Hoc Committee actively advises, supports and provides guidance to the IYOR 2008 Coordinator in carrying out the ICRI IYOR 2008 Action Plan and accompanying activities. Terms of reference for the committee were approved by ICRI at the Tokyo General Meeting in April 2007. The Committee is chaired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on behalf of the ICRI Co-Secretariat. The Ad-Hoc Committee is composed of the following members:

Australia (government)
Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) (organization)
France (government)
Mexico (government)
International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) (organization)
Japan (government)
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) (organization)
Philippines (government)
Reef Check (organization)
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (organization)
UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) (organization)
USA (government)

ICRI Plan of Action for the International Year of the Reef
http://www.iyor.org/pdf/ICRI_action_plan_IYOR.pdf

:: Credits ::

http://www.iyor.org/about/documents.asp

US EPA

2008-09-07T11:36:00.003+08:00

Corals are minute animals which belong to the group cnidaria. Other cnidarians include hydras, jellyfish, and sea anemones.

Corals are sessile animals, meaning they are not mobile but stay fixed in one place. They feed by reaching out with tentacles to catch prey such as small fish and planktonic animals.

Corals live in colonies consisting of many individuals, each of which is called polyp. They secrete a hard calcium carbonate skeleton, which serves as a uniform base or substrate for the colony. The skeleton also provides protection, as the polyps can contract into the structure if predators approach. It is these hard skeletal structures that build up coral reefs over time. The calcium carbonate is secreted at the base of the polyps, so the living coral colony occurs at the surface of the skeletal structure, completely covering it. Calcium carbonate is continuously deposited by the living colony, adding to the size of the structure.

Growth of these structures varies greatly, depending on the species of coral and environmental conditions-- ranging from 0.3 to 10 centimeters per year. Different species of coral build structures of various sizes and shapes, creating diversity and complexity in the coral reef ecosystem. Various coral species tend to be segregated into characteristic zones on a reef, separated out by competition with other species and by environmental conditions.

Virtually all reef-dwelling corals have a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with algae called zooxanthellae. The plant-like algae live inside the coral polyps and perform photosynthesis, producing food which is shared with the coral. In exchange, the coral provides the algae with protection and access to light, which is necessary for photosynthesis. The zooxanthellae also lend their color to their coral symbionts.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals lose their zooxanthellae, exposing the white calcium carbonate skeletons of the coral colony. There are a number of stresses or environmental changes that may cause bleaching including disease, excess shade, increased levels of ultraviolet radiation, sedimentation, pollution, salinity changes, and increased temperatures.

Because the zooxanthellae depend on light for photosynthesis, reef building corals are found in shallow, clear water where light can penetrate down to the coral polyps. Reef building coral communities also require tropical or sub-tropical temperatures, and exist globally in a band 30 degrees north to 30 degrees south of the equator. Reefs are generally classified in three types. Fringing reefs, the most common type, project seaward directly from the shores of islands or continents. Barrier reefs are platforms separated from the adjacent land by a bay or lagoon. The longest barrier reefs occur off the coasts of Australia and Belize. Atolls rest on the tops of submerged volcanos. They are usually circular or oval with a central lagoon. Parts of the atoll may emerge as islands. Over 300 atolls are found in the South Pacific.

Coral reefs provide habitats for a large variety of organisms. These organisms rely on corals as a source of food and shelter. Besides the corals themselves and their symbiotic algae, other creatures that call coral reefs home include various sponges; molluscs such as sea slugs, nudibranchs, oysters, and clams; crustaceans like crabs and shrimp; many kinds of sea worms; echinoderms like star fish and sea urchins; other cnidarians such as jellyfish and sea anemones; various types of fungi; sea turtles; and many species of fish.

Credits =)
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/oceans/coral/

How Corals Help Us & We Repay Them

2008-09-06T00:21:00.000+08:00

ACTION ATLAS
http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coral_reef/science.html

HOW WE NEED THE CORALS

Food

Coral reefs are the home to one quarter of all marine plants and animals (Nearly a million species of fish, crabs, eels, mollusks, sponges, worms, grasses, algae, and other marine animals): They live on reefs or use them as nurseries to protect their young.

Corals also provide natural filtration of seawater for their neighbors.

They support many fisheries that people, especially in coastal nations, depend upon. Destroying of the coral reefs could mean famine.

Shelter

Natural harbors that take millennia to build, coral reefs provide people with living sea walls against tides, storm surges, and hurricanes. They also act as giant sand factories, creating limestone from dissolved minerals in seawater and leaving it behind as sand to keep shorelines from eroding.

Medicine and other resources.

Like the tropical rainforests, coral reefs are a center of extreme biodiversity, a great reservoir of intriguing DNA we've hardly begun to explore and natural compounds we have not yet understood.

Fun and profit

Coral reefs are one big underwater amusement park for snorkelers and divers, a colourful undersea world of Cousteauian delights—which drives a tourist industry worth tens of billions of dollars, in many cases propping up the economies of entire nations.

HOW DO WE REPAY THEM?

Overfishing

In areas with an abundant human population, the collapse of the world's fisheries is a familiar story, and tropical regions are the same. Coral reef fisheries are collapsing in many regions, notably South and East Asia, where many over-exploited reefs have been stripped of nearly all edible life.

Blast fishing

In depleted fisheries, people resort to desperate tactics to catch the fish that remain. Dynamites are one of them. The explosions send dead fish to the surface and destroy living reefs; they can be heard from the Philippines to Kenya to the Caribbean.

Cyanide fishing

Restaurants and markets, especially those in East Asia, like to buy live fish; fishermen oblige them by stunning big fish with cyanide sprayed into the water. The fish are caught live, the market momentarily sated, the coral reefs killed.

Sewage

Organic wastes from human cities flood to the sea, bringing an overload of nutrients; algae take over the reefs, blotting out the sunlight corals need to live. It's called eutrophication and it's a major problem, especially in the Caribbean and Central America, where just 10 percent of sewage is properly treated before it's dumped in the sea.

Farm runoff

More eutrophication. Carried to the sea by rivers and streams, chemical fertilizers act much like sewage, overloading reef areas with nutrients for algae, choking the corals. Herbicides and pesticides are a toxic bonus. Florida is a prime example.

Oil and industrial pollution

Petrochemicals and heavy metals are a persistent threat to all marine life in coral reef zones, especially near urban areas and in the seas of the Middle East.

Sedimentation

When people clearcut forests or bulldoze new housing tracts and parking lots, tons of loose dirt is washed downstream and into near-shore reef areas, where it buries corals under a layer of silt and smothers them.

Tourism

Clumsy or just uninformed, tourists crush, scrape, gouge, and break off fragile corals with their hands, their scuba fins, and their ship anchors. Resort development destroys coastal mangroves, creates new sewage sources, and stirs up more silt that smothers reefs.

Disease

Abuse adds up, and reefs that aren't killed directly by people may be getting sick anyway from the accumulated stresses. Recent years have seen epidemics of many coral diseases and the discovery of several new ones previously unknown to science. Coral bleaching, a deadly ailment on the rise, is associated with higher water temperatures—but even that can be attributed to humankind if global warming models are correct. And the diseases seem to be getting meaner: In April, scientists reported in the journal Nature that a new species of coral-bleaching and -killing bacteria was wiping out reefs in two or three days, rather than the weeks or months it took previously.

Climate disruption

Coral bleaching aside, global warming will cause some obvious problems for corals, like decreased ocean salinity and rising mean ocean depth. Then there are the less obvious problems: Australian scientists warned in March 1998 that increasing CO₂ in the earth's atmosphere was raising the acidity of surface water in the world's oceans, making it harder for corals to form the (basic) limestone skeletons that make up the reefs.

Coral mining

People excavate coral reefs for their limestone and sand, for use in building materials, resort hotel beaches, tourist souvenirs, even snake-oil medicines: A Swedish company, Ericssons Preventive Medical Group, claims its Alka-Mine Coral Calcium will "naturally detox the body by neutralizing the acidity with which we are all...too apt to pollute our systems." Sweden, of course, has no coral reefs; the product's mineral-rich coral sand is mined off Okinawa.

Mangrove destruction

The familiar tree of swamps from Mississippi to Mozambique, the mangrove provides a crucial service to coral reefs: It filters silt and even pollution out of terrestrial runoff before it can taint the clear water of the reef zones. People chop down mangroves for firewood and clear them for coastal construction.

Marine scientists, like their counterparts elsewhere in the conservation biology community, are making small strides toward the design of large-scale bioreserves. Coral experts at the University of York in England have discovered that concentrations of protected coral areas "upstream" in ocean currents can help regenerate damaged areas "downstream."

Scientists may even have a new form of first aid for injured reefs: Researchers at the University of Guam have managed to cultivate 10 species of coral, which they hope will lead to full-blown aquaculturing. This would allow aquarium suppliers to "farm" coral, hopefully reducing pressure on threatened reefs. Another possible application would be to grow live "patches" to be applied to damaged reefs, helping them regenerate. Stateside aquaculturists in Pittsburgh and the Treasure Valley area of Idaho also are breeding captive corals, both as a hobby and to establish a bank of corals that could be transplanted to damaged reefs.

What do coral mean to people?

2008-09-05T22:55:00.000+08:00

What do coral actually mean to people?

How important do people actually regard them?

How much do people even know about them?

Do people know the importantance of the coral reefs, our underwater rainforests?

Only rather recently, people have been more aware of the problem of declining coral reefs and their importance. However, to save them before it's too late, we need more people to know about it and act on it fast.

The main purpose of this blog is to let all web readers out there understand the true and deep importantance of the coral reefs.

Coral reefs can be found in many parts of the world, in the seas and oceans. They help us silently, but their help is not reciprocrated. We need to help save the coral, to help repay what they have done, and also to save all the marine creatures that lie within.

~ ♥ Wei Ling ♥ ~

Kusu Island

2008-09-05T20:17:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures from Kusu Island that our teacher took on her trip there.

Starfish in the sand

A very long limbed starfish

A crab playing in the sand

A sea anemone

These pictures are really cool aren't they? I probably would never have gotten a chance to see such close-up pictures of nature if not for my teacher, Miss Lim.

These pictures show the all-natural and very interesting side of nature, which are slowly disappearing, bit by bit.

Save the coral, save the Earth. That's our motto.

~ ♥ Wei Ling ♥ ~

Past, Present and Future

2008-09-05T00:31:00.000+08:00

How the coral reefs were centuries back...

How they are now, after humans invaded them...

How you want them to be in the future...

Regain the life and colour of the past?

Or disappear from the face of the Earth?

It's a choice that we can make.

The fate of the coral reefs, and us, lie in our hands.

Coral reefs are our underwater rainforests. They help to clean the oceans and are the habitat of many undersea creatures.

Now, the coral is in peril of disappearing from the Earth forever... extinction is the problem at hand.

How do we prevent extinction?

What can we do?
How can I help?

There are plenty of ways to do so. Let's start small.

From an individual basis on to the level of society, every part counts.

~ ♥ Wei Ling ♥ ~

Interlinked

2008-09-04T01:02:00.000+08:00

Mankind, with the advancement of technology, has done more harm than good to nature and wildlife. It's time to face the consequences.

Way back, when there was plenty to spare, humans abused the use of natural resources and depleted them substantially. Now, when there is no longer abundance of nature for our use, prices soar sky-high and people aren't pleased, resulting in strikes in some parts of the world. However, if you come to think of it, all the problems we face now, were caused by ourselves.

No one likes hearing critisism. Nevertheless, as human beings, supposedly the animal with the highest intelligence, we should be responsive and act on the problem.

Global warming, sea levels rising, wild and marine life depleting and endangered, all of these are actually interlinked. All of them were caused due to the negligence and abuse of mankind.

f humans had been more careful about where they released their waste, be it factory waste or others, the oceans wouldn't be as polluted and innocent marine creatures wouldn't have to pay for it with their lives.

Sea turtle eating a plastic bag, which it had mistaken for a jellyfish.

Dolphin trapped in loose fishing net.

Also, if human beings had been more concerned about the rainforests, so much more of the lush green, filled with a diversity of wildlife, would still be around. With more rainforests, the air would be cleaner, the ozone layer wouldn't be depleted as badly and wildlife probably woudn't face the danger of extinction.

There is still so much that mankind has not yet learnt about nature. In just the rainforests alone, there are still millions of exotic plants and animals that have not yet been discovered.

All these problems that the world is facing in present day are mainly caused by the harm done to nature in the past.

People used to cut down trees without blinking an eye; hack away at the coral for income, not caring whether their actions then would affect the world in any way.

With the depletion of the ozone layer and the increase of greenhouse gases, the threat of global warming arises. Global warming melts the ice caps at the Earth's poles, which in turn flow into the seas and oceans, increasing sea levels. When sea levels increase, low land areas would experience flooding and small islands might even be completely submerged.

Every single problem that I have mentioned are in actual fact, inter-related.

The coral reefs, which are home to so many sea creatures, are decreasing steadily in number, along with all the marine life. If we don't do something about the situation now, the coral reefs will eventually disappear one day.

~ ♥ Wei Ling ♥ ~

Information on CoRaL ReeFs

2008-09-03T23:17:00.000+08:00

What is a Coral Reef?

-The most biologically diverse marine eco-systems on earth, rivaled only by the tropical rainforests on land.
-Corals grow over geologic time and have been in existence about 200 million years.
-Corals reached their current level of diversity 50 million years ago.
-The balanced marine environment of the coral reef is due to the interaction of hard and soft corals, sponges, anemones, snails, rays, crabs, lobsters, turtles, dolphins and other marine life.

What is a Coral Reef made up of?

-Thin plates or layers of calcium carbonate secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps.
-Takes years for some corals to grow an inch: they range in size from a pinhead to a foot in length.
-Each polyp excretes a calcereous exo-skeleton and lives in a symbiotic relationship with a host algae, zooxanthellae, that gives the coral its color.
-Zooxanthellae takes in carbon dioxide, process it through photosynthesis, and then gives off oxygen as a by-product that is used by the host polyp.
-Millions of polyps grow on top of the limestone remains of former colonies to create the massive reefs.
-Polyps form the only natural formation visible from outer space.

Different kinds of Corals

There are two kinds of corals. Both are stationary on the ocean bottom

~Hard corals have rigid exoskeletons, or corallites, that protect their soft delicate bodies.
Eg. brain, star, staghorn, elkhorn and pillar corals
~Gorgonians (soft corals) sway with the currents and lack an exoskeleton
Eg. sea fans, sea whips, and sea rods

What do Coral Reefs rely on?

They depend on mangroves and seagrass.

Mangroves: Salt-tolerant trees with submerged roots that are a nursery and breeding ground for birds and most of the marine life that migrates to the reef. Mangroves trap and produce nutrients for food and habitat, stabilize the shoreline, and filter pollutants from the landbase.

Seagrass: Flowering marine plants that are an important part of the food web. They provide foods and habitat for turtles, manatees, many fish, filter-feeding organisms and foraging sealife such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Seagrasses are a nursery for pink shrimp, lobster, snapper and other sealife. They filter the water of sediments, release oxygen and stabilize the bottom.

Coral Reefs are Imporant

~They have intrinsic natural value.
~The economic, tourism, fishing and recreational resources of tropical areas around the world depend upon healthy coral reef ecosystems.
~Barrier coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage.
~The food, tourism revenue, coastal protection and new medications that reefs provide are worth about $375 billion each year.

Credits
http://www.reefrelief.org/coral_reef_body.shtml

--Sherry--

Coral Reefs and How You Can Help

2008-09-02T00:04:00.000+08:00

How people helped in saving the Coral Reefs

~Living coral reefs are the foundation of marine life, and thus a crucial support for human life.

~Already 10 percent of the corals are lost, and scientists say 70 percent of all corals on the planet will be destroyed in 20 to 40 years unless people stop pollution, sewage, erosion, cyanide fishing, clumsy tourism

~Seriously save the coral reefs now! There's hope as coral reefs are resilient and can bounce back quickly when protected.

~Ordinary people are protecting it.

~Government efforts in much of the world are late, weak, underfunded, unenforced.

>Persian Gulf oil states set toothless pollution laws and then ignore them.

>Indian Ocean poachers outwit and outnumber British Royal Navy patrols.

>Ecuador stalls for decades while tourism explodes in the delicate Galapagos, and enforce a plan that makes it worse.

~Fishermen, students, divers, biologists and concerned citizens of all walks of life transform into activists and volunteers, using initiative to protect the coral reefs that are dear to them and vital to us all.

~Key West dive operators launched Reef Relief to keep ship anchors off Florida's dying reefs.

~One Pacific Islands environmental consultant crusaded to restore the giant clam to Tonga's depleted reefs.

~A group of marine scientists, alarmed by their findings and frustrated with government inaction, launched last year's International Year of the Reef, a global research and education program to spur coral conservation efforts and reverse the trend of destruction. Their call to action has made a difference: Conservationists and governments worldwide made launched the International Coral Reef Initiative in 1997, and the United Nations followed their lead and declared 1998 the International Year of the Ocean.

MoJo Wire presents the first installment of the Mother Jones Action Atlas^TM: Coral Reefs. It's the first comprehensive look at the state of the world's reefs that shows what you can do to help.

::Credits::
ACTION ATLAS^TM Team:
Writers: Paul Kretkowski, Monica Mehta
Research: Suzie Larsen, Mat Honan
Producer: Jennifer Villagran
Designer: Caroline Joy
Technical/Production: Caia Grisar
Editor: Keith Hammond

NGO Directory courtesy of Coral Reef Alliance

Photo Acknowledgements:
Coral Reefs Home Page: Mike Hurley (top left), Denise Jackett (bottom left)
Middle East: Jeff Rotman (top left), Jay Ireland and Georgienne Bradley (bottom left)
Indian Ocean: Norbert Wu (top left), Stephen Frink (bottom left)
East Asia: Jones/Shimlock-Photographers/Aspen (top left and bottom left)
Pacific: Jones/Shimlock-Photographers/Aspen (top left), Norbert Wu (bottom left)
Tropical Americas: Norbert Wu (top left and bottom left)
Reefs in Trouble: Wolcott Henry (top right), Mike Hurley (top left), Denise Jackett (bottom left)
Diver's Guide: Brian Parker/Tom Stack & Assoc. (top right), Mike Hurley (top left), Denise Jackett (bottom left)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coral_reef/

Endangered!

2008-09-01T15:23:00.000+08:00

Underwater wonders...

Deep sea treasures...

Are these going to remain?

Or disappear forever?

Whether we will be in time to save the coral, no one knows.

However, it's the effort that really matters.

Let's join hands and begin our journey to rescuing the Earth from all that it has suffered.

~ ♥ Wei Ling ♥ ~

What Destroys Coral Reefs and How Can I Help?

2008-08-29T15:33:00.001+08:00

What Destroys Coral Reefs and How Can I Help?

In the previous post, we have discussed a little about this topic and today, I will be elaborating more about it.

Ten percent of the world's reefs have been completely destroyed. In the Philippines, where coral reef destruction is the worst, over 70% have been destroyed and only 5% can be said to be in good condition.

There are two different ways in which humans have contributed to the degradation of the Earth's coral reefs, indirectly and directly. Indirectly, we have destroyed their environment. As you read earlier, coral reefs can live only within a certain temperature and salinity range. Global warming caused by the green house effect has raised the temperature of the oceans so high that the coral get sick and die. Even a rise of one degree in the average water temperature can hurt the coral. Due to global warming, 1998 was the hottest year in the last six centuries and 1998 was the worst year for coral.

The most obvious sign that coral is sick is coral bleaching. That is when either the algae inside die, or the algae leave the coral. The algae are what give coral its color, so without the algae the coral has no color and the white of the limestone shell shines through the transparent coral bodies. People have been noticing coral bleaching since the turn of the century, but only since the 1980s has it gotten really bad.

The warmer water also encourages the growth of harmful algae on top of the coral, which kills it, because it blocks out the sun. Without the sun, the zooxanthellae cannot perform photosynthesis and so they die. Without the zooxanthellae, the coral polyps die too. This algae is usually eaten by fish, but because of over fishing, there aren't enough fish left to eat all the algae. And the pollution we dump in the ocean is just what the algae needs to grow and be healthy, which means covering and eventually killing the coral reefs.

The direct way in which humans destroy coral reefs is by physically killing them. All over the world, but especially in the Philippines, divers catch the fish that live in and around coral reefs. They sell these fish to fancy restaurants in Asia and to fancy pet stores in the United States. This would be solved if the divers catches the fish carefully with nets and do not hurt the reefs or take too many fish. Often they blow up a coral reef with explosives and then catch all the stunned fish swimming around. This completely destroys the reefs, killing the coral polyps that make it as well as many of the plants and animals that call it home. And the creatures that do survive are left homeless.

Another way that divers catch coral reef fish is with cyanide. Cyanide is a poison. The divers pour this poison on the reef, which stuns the fish and kills the coral. Then they rip open the reef with crowbars and catch the fish while they are too sick from the poison to swim away. This poison kills 90% of the fish that live in the reef and the reef is completely destroyed both by the poison and then by being ripped apart.

All this may seem a bit depressing, but there are many groups in the world dedicated to saving the coral reefs. These groups work to educate people about the destruction of coral reefs. They lobby the United States Congress as well as the governments of other nations, trying to convince them not to buy fish that have been caught by destroying coral reefs. They encourage governments to crack down on pollution, both into the ocean and into the air, which causes global warming. They encourage visitors to coral reefs to be careful not to harm them. They even build artificial reefs to replace the reefs that have been destroyed. If you want to learn more about these groups, visit some of their websites, like the Coral Reef Alliance, Reef Relief, and the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation.

Some people help coral reefs by convincing governments to treat them with care. Other people help coral reefs by studying them. One way that people learn more about coral reefs is by slicing open dead ones and looking inside. The inside of a coral reef looks a lot like the inside of a tree (picture below) and the lines mean the same thing. A person who studies tree rings is called a dendrochronologist. " Dendro " means tree, " chron " means time and " ologist " means person who studies, so dendrochronologist means person who studies trees through time.

Dendrochronologists count the number of rings in a slice of a tree to see how old the tree was when it died. There is one ring for each year the tree lived. The dendrochronologist also looks at the size of the rings. A thick ring means that that year there was lots of food and it was a good year for the tree. A thin ring can mean that there was a drought that year or maybe the tree was sick. In the same way, oceanographers can look at the rings in a slice of coral and see how old the coral is and which years were good years and which were not. The more we know about coral the better we will be able to protect them for years to come.

kiayuen

Is Coral an Animal, Mineral or a Vegetable?

2008-08-29T15:10:00.000+08:00

Is the coral an Animal, Mineral or a Vegetable?

Coral is an animal that belongs to the phylum cnidaria. A phylum is a group that scientists place animals in which share certain characteristics. Cnidarians are radially symmetric, which means that they are the same all the way around, 360 degrees! They are built like sacs with a hole in one end that is surrounded by stinging tentacles. Jellyfish are cnidaria. Now, you are probably thinking, jellyfish don't look anything like what I thought coral was! That's because the most common pictures of coral are colonies called reefs.

During the mating season coral polyp release eggs and sperm into the water and when an egg and a sperm meet they form a larva known as a planula.

The baby coral looks like a little tiny jellyfish and it floats around in the water until it finds a hard place to attach to, usually a coral reef. Then it lands and starts to build itself a shell. It builds it by combining carbon dioxide and calcium in the water to make calcium carbonate also known as limestone. This shell is shaped like a round vase and the coral polyp lives inside.

Coral polyps are primarily nocturnal. At night a coral polyp will stick its tentacles out of its vase and let the tentacles wave in the current. Then, when plankton float by, the coral polyp stings them with its tentacles and brings the plankton inside its shell to have for lunch.

A coral reef is about a million of these individual coral polyp shells all stuck one on top of the other. When coral polyps die, new ones land and grow right on top of the old empty shells. There are over 500 different species of coral. Some look like brains and some like fans and some like the antlers of deer, but they are all made up of tiny coral polyps.

Organisms other than coral can form reefs. A reef is simply a structure in the shallow parts of the ocean that serves as a home to animals and plants. Many sunken ships have become reefs and humans even create artificial reefs to replace the coral reefs that we have destroyed. Some artificial reefs are specially constructed for the purpose, but others are made of tires linked together, old appliances linked together and even discarded military equipment like tanks and helicopters.

kiayuen

Coral Reefs: The Rainforests of the Sea?

2008-08-29T13:59:00.000+08:00

Coral Reefs: The Rainforests of the Sea?

Coral reefs start out small and grow about half an inch a year, but if undisturbed by man they can grow to be quite large. The Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia is 150 km (93.2 mi) wide and 2000 km (1,242 mi) long! The tan parts of the reef are the shells of dead coral polyps and the colorful parts are the living parts of the reef.

Reefs grow best in sunny, shallow, clear water. The water must be clear and shallow so that the reef can get lots of sunlight. They rarely grow deeper than 40m and they prefer salt water, doing poorly in areas where there is a lot of river runoff due to the freshwater as well as the silt which can cover a reef or muddy the water blocking the sunlight. The best temperature for coral reefs is between 25 and 31û C and the best salinity is between 34 and 37 parts per 1000. The appropriate temperatures and salinities are most often found in the tropics.

Reefs grow best in sunny, shallow, clear water. The water must be clear and shallow so that the reef can get lots of sunlight. They rarely grow deeper than 40m and they prefer salt water, doing poorly in areas where there is a lot of river runoff due to the freshwater as well as the silt which can cover a reef or muddy the water blocking the sunlight. The best temperature for coral reefs is between 25 and 31û C and the best salinity is between 34 and 37 parts per 1000. The appropriate temperatures and salinities are most often found in the tropics.

There are three kinds of coral reef--the fringing reef, the barrier reef and the atoll.

Fringing reefs grow in shallow water along the shore and prefer arid climates with limited river runoff. Fringing reefs are platforms that are continuous with the shore. That means they grow right up to the edge of the shore, like in the picture above.

Barrier reefs are separated from the shore by a wide, deep lagoon. They grow only when there has been a change of sea level on the adjacent coast. This occurs when a fringing reef grows upwards so that it can stay near the surface of the water. Coral reefs like to grow just below the waterline so that they have the best access to the sunlight. It is best if a reef grows at the same rate as the rise of the water. Barrier reefs also grow where the land is sinking faster than the water. The number of barrier reefs has increased dramatically as the greenhouse effect has warmed up our atmosphere causing the water levels to rise.

Atolls are reefs surrounding a lagoon. They are created when an island surrounded by barrier reefs sinks below the ocean surface, leaving a circular reef, called an atoll. Atolls are also created when water levels rise to cover an island and the surrounding reef grows to keep up with the surface of the water.

kiayuen

Importance of coral reefs

2008-08-26T15:24:00.000+08:00

Importance of coral reefs

In the first post, we have discussed the topic and i will go into further elaboration in this post.

Coral reefs are important for many reasons. Most importantly, they provide protection and shelter for many different species of fish. Without coral reefs, these fish are left homeless with nowhere to live and no where to have their babies.
Not only do these fish increase the diversity of our world, but also reef fish and mollusks feed between 30 and 40 million people every year. They also make beautiful pets and the money made by catching and selling these animals provides many people with an income so that they can feed their families.
And coral are very important in controlling how much carbon dioxide is in the ocean water. You read earlier about how the coral polyp turns carbon dioxide in the water into a limestone shell. Without coral, the amount of carbon dioxide in the water would rise dramatically and that would affect all living things on Earth.
In addition, coral reefs are very important because they protect coasts from strong currents and waves by slowing down the water before it gets to the shore. That is why they are called barrier reefs. They provide a barrier between the ocean and the shore.

Science Centre Singapore

2008-08-25T23:56:00.000+08:00

Science Centre Singapore
24 August 2008
Marine Cove

http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/index.jsp

our trip of IYOR - singapore botanical gardens

2008-08-23T02:36:00.000+08:00

On 9 August 2008, Wei Ling and I, along with 2 other friends, Pei Ning and Gwendolyn, and 2 other teachers, Ms Dawn Lim and Miss Soh, went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. We had gone for a talk on Coral Reefs.

The above are pictures of the talk.

The above are exhibits.

From left: Pei Ning, Wei Ling, Kia Yuen(me), Gwendolyn

The map is where coral reefs can be found in singapore.

From left: Kia Yuen(me), Wei Ling, Pei Ning and Gwendolyn.

ARE THERE CORAL REEFS IN SINGAPORE?

- Yes.

Coral Reefs can be found in the following places in Singapore:

-Sentosa

-Pulau Brani

-Pulau Tekukor

-Lazarus Island

-Kusu Island

-St. John's Island

-The Sisters

-Pulau Sebarok

-Pulau Semakau

-Pulau Jong

-Pulau Bukom

-Pulau Busing

-Pulau Hantu

-Jurong Island

-Pulau Sudong

-Pulau Pawai

-Pulau Senang

-Raffles Lighthouse

Most reefs are located in Southern Islands, and there are 250 different species of reefs in Singapore.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO SAVE THESE CORAL REEFS FROM EXTINCTION?

Problems:

- Global threats

Ø Causes corals to create calcium carbonate which reacts with acids.

Ø Humans break corals to sell and to chase fishes away.

- Rubbish

Ø Unbiodegradable litter like plastic causes fish or other sea creatures to get caught in them.

Ø Turtles eat clear plastics which they mistake for jellyfish.

Ø Loose nets around which trap organisms and cause them to die of starvation.

- Destructive fishing practices

Ø Throwing explosive objects into the water.

- Costal development

- Over fishing

Ø Overhunting for sharks fin

Ø Natural infestations like disasters

· Coral blinking

Solutions:

- Practice the 3Rs

Ø Reduce

Ø Reuse

Ø Recycle

HOW BAD IS THE SITUATION?

In a recent beach cleaning exercise, volunteers have found:
- 6,587 straws
- 8, 767 food wrappers
- 10, 844 plastic bags
- 16, 812 cigarette butts

Singapore’s off shore landfill, Semakau landfill, is supposed to last us till 2040 but it is already 2/5 filled so far. Thus, we have to conserve and reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible.

Kia Yuen and Wei Ling