{"id":115457,"date":"2022-05-13T14:23:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T18:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/?p=115457"},"modified":"2022-05-16T16:41:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T20:41:03","slug":"water-contaminations-effects-on-coral-reefs-and-how-to-slow-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/water-contaminations-effects-on-coral-reefs-and-how-to-slow-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Coral Reefs: Water Contamination\u2019s Effects and How to Slow Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Mitriy Krause, Associate Researcher & Writer for Save The Water\u2122 | May 13, 2022<\/p>\n
Coral reefs are centers for ocean biodiversity. These biodiversity hubs have been at risk of extinction for some time now. Among other factors, water contamination plays a part in harming these delicate ecosystems. Luckily, scientists are studying how to make them healthy again.<\/p>\n
Coral reefs are underwater ecosystems. They are based around coral species that are able to build reefs. Reefs are hard, rock-like structures. Some species and other ocean processes make them naturally. We can find coral reefs all over the world<\/a>. However, they cover only a small percentage of the ocean floor.<\/p>\n Coral reefs are vastly biodiverse. This means they foster many different species of plants, fish, and other ocean creatures.<\/p>\n They do best in certain water conditions<\/a>:<\/p>\n Coral reefs face many threats. In fact, some scientists fear that they could disappear by 2050<\/a>. However, losing them means thousands<\/a> of different species may become extinct. Also, losing these reefs would threaten the livelihoods of humans who use the fish for their diet or income<\/a>.<\/p>\n Water pollution poses a big threat to coral reefs. A lot of trash and chemical contaminants from land<\/a> make their way to these ocean shelters. Moreover, illegal fishing and overfishing threaten the natural cycles<\/a> of these ocean ecosystems. Wastewater from ships has been linked to stony coral tissue loss disease<\/a> (SCTLD). This disease is deadly and spreads quickly.<\/p>\n Many people travel to places where they can observe the beautiful coral reefs. However, those reefs closest to human civilization are the most vulnerable to water contamination.<\/p>\n In contrast, reefs in safer areas show more resistance, resiliency, and faster recovery<\/a> against these negative impacts.<\/p>\n Scientists have known for a long time that coral reefs are important centers of biodiversity for marine species. Recently, researchers have begun to study them at the molecular level<\/a>. These studies will help scientists better understand the different factors at work in these complex ecosystems. Such knowledge can help us learn the best ways to protect them. It can also let us help them recover from negative environmental impacts.<\/p>\n There are a few ways you can help protect coral reefs:<\/p>\n By Mitriy Krause, Associate Researcher & Writer for Save The Water\u2122 | May 13, 2022 Coral reefs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12812,"featured_media":115458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,52],"tags":[3530,200,547],"yst_prominent_words":[1822,654,637,945,2216,618,1333,800,3060,612,614],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115457"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115462,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115457\/revisions\/115462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115457"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savethewater.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=115457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Research Findings on Coral Reefs<\/h2>\n
What We Can Expect in the Future<\/h2>\n
What You Can Do to Help<\/h2>\n
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