Coral Reef cONSERVATION Project slc
This specific project took us a few months to complete. There were multiple components such as a research paper, video, lesson plan and service plan. I signed up to be the leader of the research paper. Over the course of a few months, the paper was revised many times because the more we researched, the more information we found. My groups topic of discussion for the paper was High Nutrients/Nitrates. A nutrient or nitrate is a substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life. They can be found in water or wherever organisms live. Coral benefits from nitrates because they make photosynthesis easier for the zooxanthellae. The zooxanthellae is a symbiotic algae that tends to grow on coral. However, although the algae is useful to coral, when there are excessive nitrate levels, it will cause the algae to overgrow. From here, the coral would then expel their zooxanthellae which is called coral bleaching. Coral reefs provide shelter for millions of different aquatic organisms. They also provide billions of dollars and millions of jobs in more than 100 countries around the globe. Unfortunately coral reef population is declining at an alarming rate of ~1% per year. Over 70% are already destroyed with only 5% said to be in good condition. A few causes for this decrease are sedimentation, rising sea temperatures, increasing ocean acidity and human interaction. I feel that this project in particular represents the semester because we have basically been doing coral research for the entire time span. The majority of our research in all classes including Environmental Engineering were contributed into this project including what is destroying reefs and how to try and prevent it from happening.
quikscienceproposalnitratehigh.pdf | |
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