Literature review: Factors Lead To Coral Population Reduction

Ocean climate is an important part of global climate. As the ocean occupies more than

70% of the surface on the Earth, slight changes of the ocean can have a huge influence on the

global scale. There are various factors influencing the marine environment, one of the most

important of which is biodiversity. Among those living in the ocean, though corals only cover

less than 0.1% space in the ocean, there are more than 25% species that maintain their lives on

corals1. More than the influences corals have on ecosystems, they also support a huge part of

human economics and produce a variety of food and medicines. However, even though they play

such an important role in the ocean, or global ecology, their population is experiencing a

significant decline due to multiple factors, such as the rising sea temperature and acidity. It is

admitted that people are working to recover the diversity and population of coral reefs, but not

only for the professionals but also the common people, knowing the reason for the declining

coral cover is a vital step to a better conservation method. Since 1980, the number of essays

explaining the situation of declining coral population and worse living environment has been

increasing, but most of them are published in professional journals. This led to the problem that

most people did not realize the decreasing population of coral and why the population is

reducing until recent years2. However, only if more people are protecting the ocean, will the

situation of coral survival get better. This essay aims to combine both academic and

non-academic resources, including journals, documentary and Youtube videos and to explain

what are the main factors threatening the survival of corals and what are the methods we employ

to solve the problems.

1
National Geographic. (2017, November 7). Coral Reefs 101 | National Geographic. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiULxLLP32s&feature=youtu.be
2
Madin, J. S., & Madin, E. M. P. (2015). The full extent of the global coral reef crisis. Conservation
Biology, 29(6), 1724–1726. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12564
 O. Hoegh-Guldberg and his companions wrote the article Coral Reefs Under Rapid

Climate Change and Ocean Acidification 3 to summarize the influence of greenhouse effects on

the ocean environment , thus finally decreases coral survival rates. This essay separated the

information into two parts, including the increasing sea temperature and acidity. While the

former change makes the corals and their symbiotic algae more fragile, the later one slows down

the build up process of coral framework made of carbonate. The numbers and charts used about

the pH value and temperature of the ocean related to carbon dioxide concentration is accurate

and precise, which gives the researchers a clear impression of how they response to each other

and how human activities finally have negative effects not only to forest and climates, which we

have direct relationship with, but also to ecology systems and biodiversity we don't have direct

contact with. The article explained that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is

experiencing a rapid increase, which leads to global warming and ocean acidification. The article

also listed detailed data that for the last 420,000 years, the concentration of CO2 has never gone

below 240 μmol and there is a 0.7 ˚C sea temperature increase and a 0.1 pH unit decrease for

now. These data make the essay more persuasive but also prevent non-professional people from

reading it. A logical reasoning is built up in the article by explaining how the frameworks of

corals are fragile and sensitive to temperature and acidity changes, and only a slight increase of

sea temperature may lead to a larger population of coral reefs being fragile and dying4. Even

though this article contains a great detail on how the concentration of CO2 influences corals, as it

is published in professional ecology journals, it is hard for common people to have the patience

and knowledge for understanding it and connect the situation stated in the article to our daily

3
Anthony, K. R. (2016). Coral Reefs Under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Challenges and
Opportunities for Management and Policy. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41(1), 59–81.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085610
4
Gagnon, A. C. (2013). Coral calcification feels the acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 110(5), 1567–1568. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221308110
lives. Moreover, greenhouse gas is not the only factor for the decreasing coral population.

Besides the direct impact the ocean environment has on corals themselves, the population of

their necessary symbiotic algae is also reduced, weakening coral survival abilities.

In the essay written by the scientist Rochanya A. Generous, the symbiotic relationship of

coral reefs and algae, especially quorum is explained. As the algae produce nutrients and energy

with photosynthesis, the corals provide the algae with growing support. However, when the sea

temperature increases, not only do the corals themselves become more fragile, the symbiotic

algae may also suffer from the changing environment. The symbiotic relationship is broken, and

both species experience a crisis. There are more than 500,000 symbiotic algae cells in each coral

tissue per cm2 coral tissue, and the various pigments contained enable the corals to be colorful.

When the symbiotic algae die because of environmental change, the corals are bleached and may

die in months. This explains the other factor that may reduce coral population besides the direct

impact of rising ocean temperature and acidity. Similar to the first essay, though this article

provides a comprehensive explanation of how the symbiotic relationship affects corals, the

jargon and complex experimental methods prevent common people from understanding it.

However, different genres are designed to target different audiences as they use different words

and have a different perspective.

In the documentary Chasing Coral, a team of scientists, photographers and divers

explored the corlas in the deep ocean and tried to warn people about their reducing population5.

They recorded the process of coral bleaching because of the increasing sea temperature and gave

some comparison of the color difference between normal and bleached corals. They told people

even though people are taking greener actions, the corals will be endangered in 30 years without

5
Chasing Coral. 2021. Chasing Coral – A new Netflix Original documentary. [online] Available at:
<https://www.chasingcoral.com/#map> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
extra protections. Though there are no flourish sentences, those languages of real feeling and

scenes are the best to explain the current situation. Though the documentary is comprehensive, as

it lasts for about an hour, people may not be patient enough to watch all of it. Instead, some short

videos on Youtube may do a better job in conveying coral information.

In the Youtube video posted by the coral conservation worker in the Great Barrier,

Johnny Gaskell, a marine biologist on the daydream island, the process of destruction and

recovery of the Great Barrier Reef and what are the methods used are introduced including

manufacturally cultivating the corals in the sea and in the pool6. To illustrate how external

damage may destroy the corals, he put the video of the gray ocean and lifeless after the cyclone

ground together with the video before it with vivid fish and coral activities, as well as the

colorful underwater city. Though the corals were destroyed by the cyclone but not human

activities, it is not hard to imagine what we have done to the croals: the area that we destroy is

far more than natural disasters. The strong contrast of both the color and the biodiversity between

the two videos gives people an impression of how the underwater world would be without the

liveliness of corals. Though this provokes people’s compassion and creates a sense of urgency to

take action to do something for the corals right away. The video also introduced two basic ways

of recovering corals after damage, which both require a great effort and take more than half a

year. This means that protecting the environment of the ocean is always easier than destroying it

first and recovering the corals artificially. As this video is designed for the public to know about

the corals, simple and cute animations and pictures are used during explanation to help

interpretation. Different from the academic essays or reviews, it does not contain the complex

jargon, statistical data and professional measurements;instead, the video employed a storytelling

6
Leisure, T. +. (2019, December 5). How Scientists Are Restoring The Great Barrier Reef | Travel +
Leisure. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hknaJQRh8s&feature=youtu.be
tone to attract the audience and introduce coral's basic information. The video also did not expect

the audience to have patience to have a deep understanding of what is the current situation of

coral reefs as the documentary. However, the shallow acknowledgement is enough to urge people

to take action to protect coral reefs.

All of these resources are valid and able to attract their targeted audience by providing

enough information about the coral reefs separately. People can have some interpretation of the

current situation of coral reefs and how their population decreases. However, when their contexts

are combined, they are able to target a wider audience and enable them to be interested in and

willing to pay effort to know more about the corals. This essay not only provides detailed data on

how greenhouse gas is related to coral survival, but also gives some impressions on how the

corals are recovered and why it is difficult. Incorporating both academic and non-academic

resources, analyzing their limitations and advantages, a comprehensive recognition of how coral

population decreases is available to both professionals and common people. (Word count: 1357)

Reference

National Geographic. (2017, November 7). Coral Reefs 101 | National Geographic. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiULxLLP32s&feature=youtu.be

Madin, J. S., & Madin, E. M. P. (2015). The full extent of the global coral reef crisis.

Conservation Biology, 29(6), 1724–1726. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12564

Anthony, K. R. (2016). Coral Reefs Under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Challenges

and Opportunities for Management and Policy. Annual Review of Environment and

Resources, 41(1), 59–81. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085610

Gagnon, A. C. (2013). Coral calcification feels the acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of
 Sciences, 110(5), 1567–1568. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221308110

Chasing Coral. 2021. Chasing Coral – A new Netflix Original documentary. [online] Available

at: <https://www.chasingcoral.com/#map> [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Leisure, T. +. (2019, December 5). How Scientists Are Restoring The Great Barrier Reef | Travel

+ Leisure. YouTube

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hknaJQRh8s&feature=youtu.be

Boyd, Janet. Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. ed. Vol.

Volume 2. 2021. 88-91

Referenced for the method to analyze the tone of the video and journal cited, the

information are selected and organized according to the suggestions Murder! posted.