Coral reef... the Rain forest of the sea




Coral reef is known as "the rain forest of the sea" which are the most biodiversity region in the sea. It is a group of individual coral known as polyp. Thousands of such identical polyps live together to form coral colony.

There are so  many fishes, algae invertebrates and other species lies around these corals. Mainly there exist a symbiotic relationship between algae and the coral. The corals provide protected environment and compounds for photosynthesis in algae, in turn algae provides oxygen which is useful for corals to remove wastes.

Coral reef are mostly found between the tropics in Pacific ocean,Persian gulf, Indian Ocean and Red sea. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure in the world located in Queensland, Australia. 

Corals are providing so many benefits which are
  •  Preventing  the shore from erosion of waves
  •  providing habitat for variety of species
  • Assist in carbon and nitrogen fixing 
  • Act as a source of revenue through tourism
  • Medicinal value also
Even though they are providing these much benefits, coral reef in the world facing threats. Mass coral bleaching occur due to El Nino and global warming . Other major threats can be stated as  

1. Anthropogenic Factor
  • Destructive fishing mainly trawling and bottom trawling
  • More tourism activities which are destructive to corals
  • Discharge of sewage mainly plastics
2. Natural Factors
  • Changes in the sea such as cyclones and storms
  • variety of star fish which are poisonous to coral
So in order to conserve these coral reef the various measures that can be suggested as
  • Implement sustainable tourism
  • Make strict laws against the discharge of sewage into sea
  • Control on trawling and bottom trawling activities
  • Promote afforestation activities in which forest are carbon sink will reduce Co2 and ocean acidification



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Economic Growth and Economic Development

Himalayas or Northern Mountains

Great Plain of India