Environmental Stresses

Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts some of the environmental stresses faced by two marine ecosystems: the coral reefs and the mangrove swamps. It attempts to show that despite differences in types of ecosystem stressors, both share common anthropogenic stresses. The paper begins by describing the coral reefs and mangrove swamps and then describes the threats to them, environmentally.

From the Paper:

"Despite the vast amount of coral, that can seem mind-boggling at times, the specific environmental conditions required by coral means that it can be very susceptible to environmental changes. For examples, relatively minor surface water temperature increases can kill, or bleach, coral reefs. In Hawaii Jokiel and Brown (2004) found that sea surface temperature increases of just more than 1 degree C caused significant coral bleaching in both 1996 and 2002. They observed that the overall trend of oceanic warming is causative for increases in the frequency and severity of coral bleaching worldwide. While global warming has been pointed to as the reason for this increase, there are more direct ways that man is placing new environmental stresses on coral reefs. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Forsman, R.B. (2005, January). Life and death on the coral reef: an ecological perspective on scholarly publishing in the health sciences. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 93(1), pp. 7-15.
• Fox, H.E., Mous, P.J., Pet, J.S., Muljadi, A.H. and Caldwell, A.L. (2005, February). Experimental assessment of coral reef rehabilitation following blast fishing. Conservation Biology, 19(1), pp. 98-107.
• Jokiel, P.L. and Brown, E.K. (2004). Global warming, regional trends and inshore environmental conditions influence coral bleaching in Hawaii. Global Change Biology, 10, pp. 1627-1641.
• Ricklefs, R.E. (2005, January). The Economy of Nature. 5th ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.
• Schaffel, R.L. (Ed.). (1984). ABC's of Nature. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, Inc.

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