The Importance Of Coral Reefs

Almost 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of a sea’s coast, benefiting from the environmental assets provided by coral reefs on the shore. The reefs house roughly 1/3 of all marine fish species, creating “biodiversity hotspots that generate an estimated $30 billion a year in revenue, mostly from fisheries and tourism” (Pennisi). It is estimated that some 500 million people depend on coral reefs in some way, with close to 30 million entirely dependent on the benefits of the reefs. But, keeping to the trend of irony in this world, one of the world’s most important ecosystems is on a sharp decline that may result in its ultimately devastating disappearance. In September of 2007, several species of coral were added to the Red
The destruction of the world’s reefs would have
These researchers, like Steve Palumbi of Stanford University, find more interest not in the corals that are dying, but in those that are thriving in likely-fatal conditions. Some coral reefs, like one off Taiwan that lies below the waste-water outfall pipe of a nuclear power plant and experiences extreme fluctuations in temperature, are flourishing in the poor conditions. Palumbi and others believe that processes called genetic fitness and acclimatization take place over time to result in more resilient coral that are able to survive in otherwise detrimental areas. Targeting the genes in these particular corals and hoping to design a reef made all the fittest and most prepared organisms, reef designers desire to create the ultimate reef: one that would be able to survive all of the worsening conditions and provide marine life with a sustained habitat, further benefiting the entire ecosystem. Although the designer reefs hypothetically seem to be the best option, there comes a risk with genetically manipulating the makeup of the corals. David Miller, a coral biologist at James Cook University in Townsville, warns that “selective-breeding programmes may effectively reduce the capacity of corals to adapt to future changes in environmental conditions by narrowing genetic variation.” This could lead to higher susceptibility to disease and other harm. Although there is a higher risk with the research and scientific process that could