Coral Reefs - Research Paper Example

of this student that the reader will come away from this paper with a more informed understanding of how the coral reefs are an integral part of the ecosystem and the means by which action must be encouraged in order to save them from any further destruction. Although it is true that these reefs are beautiful, they allow for tens of thousands of different forms of sea life to reside within these reefs; in a way that they could not within the deeper oceans and other unprotected regions of the sea.

This protection from indigenous species allows for species that would otherwise have little to no protection from predators to thrive within such an environment. Moreover, the habitat that the coral reefs provide creates a somewhat sustainable ecosystem which humans can then leverage in the form of planned and ethical fishing. An analysis of existing coral reefs denote that approximately 30-40 million people are year are fed from the sea life that is harvested within these zones. Naturally, even though this only makes up a small portion of the earth’s population, it forms an essential part of defining the way in which the food chain operates in the means by which tens of millions of people gain sustenance each and every year.

Another element of great importance with regards to the coral reefs has to do with the ability of the coral reef to turn carbon dioxide into limestone. Ultimately, as the ongoing fear over global climate change has evidenced, the increasing levels of CO2 have created a situation in which CO2 is being evidenced to a further and further degree within the environment (Villanueva 887). As the earth does not have the ability to remedy this increase at the same pace that human industrial activities and burning of fossil fuel creates it, the need for protecting the earth’s natural ability to transform CO2 into other substances is essential.

Even though it might not be possible to reverse the rate of global warming/climate change, seeking to