Coral Reefs of the Caribbean Region

Introduction of title and explanation of the purpose 

The Caribbean Region incorporates more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. The area's islands and little islets have fluctuated in their geology. Some have a general level and sandy landscape while others are tough, precipitous, and volcanic. Coral reefs are sections of shores made of corals that form a hard shell structure around the bodies of the see biomes and its floor which gives a rich a rich network to green growth and plants such as sea grass. They majorly support the surrounding aquatic life by providing food, oxygen, nutrition and form a natural habitat for fish. The most famous areas covered by coral reefs in the Caribbean area that are highly affected by human activities including tourism and diving activities is Costa Rica. In this project, Costa Rica will be discussed into a little more details and the coral reefs surrounding the busy area. 

The main purpose for doing this project is to create awareness to all those who interact with the Caribbean reefs including the locals and tourists on what impacts their activities have on the surrounding environment, majorly the reefs and to help them realize how to encounter such effects. It will also help to know the wider effects of diminishing corals and aquatic life in coral reefs to the world in general. 

About place Description, Sites and Research 

The coral reefs and cays of the Caribbean Sea are among the most dynamite biomes in North America. A reef is an edge of spiked shake, coral, or sand directly above or beneath the outside of the ocean. Some coral reefs encompass islands, for example, the Bahamas, Antigua, and Barbados. Others are found off the Florida Keys, a chain of cays, little islands arranged on a coral reef stage, close to the southern shore of the U.S. territory of Florida. 

Coral reefs are made of a considerable number of minor creatures, corals that structure a hard shell around their bodies. This hard surface gives a rich network to green growth and plants such as seagrass. Brilliantly hued tropical fish, just as sharks, ocean turtles, ocean stars, and ocean ponies, are creatures local to the Caribbean's coral reefs. In this project, a series of reef fish , seaweeds and micro-organisms density from 48 studies are discussed. The studies incorporate 318 reefs over the Caribbean and range particular timeframes in response to the currently occurring dramatic climatic changes caused majorly by human activities. 

Coral Reefs in Costa Rica. 

One of the most common places where human activities and tourism have widely affected coral reefs is Costa Rica.  The newly developed dive-site has been along the pacific coast of Guanacaste province in Costa Rica. You will find little live coral and few reefs. The divers will find a huge variety of soft corals, fish, and invertebrates a result of the abundance of plankton that flourishes in these tropical areas. The Caribbean coast has good coral reefs. At Isla Uvita, just offshore of Limon, are tropical fish, sea fans, and a coral reef. Farther south, at Cahuita, is Costa Rica’s most beautiful coral reef extending 500 meters out from Cahuita point. The fan shaped reef covers 593 hectares and has 35 different species Shamsul (2012). Reef growth in this area is extremely slow; an individual colony grows inch to 7 inches (1 cm to 18 cm) in a year, depending on the species. Coral colonies can live for several decades to centuries but in this area, heavy fishing and tourism makes their lifespan shorter and mostly dependent on their species. The growth rate of corals and coral reefs depends on several factors such as light strength, water temperature, and turbidity, and salinity, competition for space, food availability, and predation. The upward growth of coral colonies is generally between 0.5 to 4 inches (1-10 cm) in a year. The solid structure required for attachment, the moderate wave action to disperse wastes and bring oxygen and plankton to the reef and clear waters low in phosphate and nitrogen nutrients required to support the life of these reefs are destroyed by divers and industries that dump toxic waste materials in to the sea. A grate impact of commercial fishing in Costa Rica greatly affects the coral reefs in terms of competition for food and space. 

Initial Galleries used 

Caribbean coastal development threats (polygon) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/b0eccd37027a4deb929c91744e03731d 

Caribbean dive tourism centres. May 13, 2010 (Last modified May 14, 2010) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/376716ccdd194010bbc0e8413b66c91a 

Caribbean coral reef coastal development threat (points). May 14, 2010, https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/9458f94a73a84481b94eaf639f8b8061 

Oil and gas extraction points for the Wider Caribbean Region https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/b4c43a1c15574c3d9e214822425a9eb5 

Caribbean coral reef overfishing threat (point) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/83a532d5d93d420fb1ed966e527154ad 

Caribbean overfishing threats for coral reefs (polygon) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/e64bc549db80424cb6a1613ec06131a0 

Caribbean cruise ports https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/e4252d50213d45e3a81c0bc6151ad20e 

Caribbean Reefs at Risk Threat Index (polygon) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/0363d08f572d45fdbb1e675a08a52545 

Caribbean Marine Protected Areas (polygon data only) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/7a185b4a055041049aad5e30b2b91855 

Watershed Boundaries for the Caribbean Region https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/7e2b0085e4614a1185b425ed6f8e589c 

Caribbean Reefs at Risk Index (points) https://dlcc.databasin.org/datasets/9dc84b5459c94c6bb7370d6e5b1f9376 

And many more in the project created in the provided site. 

Understanding of the Sense of place after research 

Significant natural changes occur on coral reefs thought the tropics, with consistent coral spread loss and accompanying algal increments, especially in the Caribbean region. Recorded decreases in the abundance of vast Caribbean reef fishes likely reflect hundreds of years of overexploitation. However, impacts of exceptional ongoing corruption of reef territories on reef fish arrays still can't seem to be set up. Discussion of reef fish, seaweeds, and micro-organisms density got from 48 studies about that incorporate 318 reefs over the Caribbean and range particular timeframes. My investigations demonstrate that general reef fish density has been declining drastically for over ten years, at rates that are steady overall sub-regions of the Caribbean basin (2.7% to 6.0% loss every year) and in three of six trophic groups. Changes in fish density over the past 50 years are lower with respect to simultaneous changes in the benthic spread on Caribbean reefs. In any case, generally, the ongoing noteworthy decrease in fish abundance and its consistency over many trophic groups and among both fished and unfished species demonstrate that Caribbean fishes have started to react negatively to high degradation of the environment. 

Culture and Impacts of climate change 

Strangely, the decrease in fish noted could be brought about by the recovery of substantial predators. These predator fish species live at low populations yet can eat and survive on large quantities of smaller reef fishes. Such an impact has been seen in correlations of the intensely abused Pacific reefs and seems to be due to the abundance of extensive sharks on unfished reefs. There is no proof, in any case, that population of sharks or piscivorous fishes have been expanding in the Caribbean region. In this manner, we discover no evidence that decreases in density of Caribbean reef fishes have been driven by the recovery of huge predators in the region. 

Corals have declined rapidly over the Caribbean region in a previous couple of decades, with an 80% decrease in spread since the mid-1970s. The general absence of balance between the direction of fish density and that of the coral spread inside this time span is outstanding, in consideration that decreases in density of numerous coral reef fish species have been connected to the loss of coral in different regions. Reactions of fish populaces to loss of coral in the Indo-Pacific have been appeared to slack by 5– 10 years. Interestingly, in the Caribbean, where coral has been lost step by step since in any event the mid-1970s, our studies show that general reef fish density started to decrease fundamentally just in the most recent decade. The slack in light of coral loss via Caribbean reef fish may hence be longer than for Indo-Pacific fishes. 

The territorial distinction in slack occasions may essentially reflect contrasts in the fleeting size of the coral loss, since this investigation looks at changes in reef fish density all through a lot of time of ceaseless coral loss, though the studies pursued discrete coral mortality occasions. However, contrasts among Caribbean and Indo-West Pacific fishes because of decreases in coral spread might be genuine and reflect different verifiable and biological causes. Caribbean reef fish may not rely upon corals to a similar degree as do their Indo-Pacific partners. Noncoral natural surroundings seem to have been important for speciation and steadiness of Caribbean fish taxa, especially amid times of high coral annihilation rates. In any case, it is vital for Caribbean fishes and all things considered, the three-dimensional alleviation of Caribbean reefs has been breaking down, especially recently the corals, the amount of reef levels, have been decreased to a small area and space coverage. 

This study uncovers ongoing area-wide decreases in Caribbean coral reef fish density that are to a great extent predictable crosswise over subregions and in three of six trophic gatherings. Even though Caribbean reef fishes appear to have been slower in reacting to the corruption of coral reef natural surroundings than Indo-Pacific reef fishes, decays have as of late turned out to be noticeable. The consistency of these decays over the scope of animal varieties with fluctuating ecologies and a variety of reefs all through the Caribbean require conservation, with fishes in this region currently declining because of territory related changes. 

My Progress and understandings 

I have understood that several human activities are going on in the Caribbean region. The Caribbean Sea has been recorded as one of the zones most genuinely harmed by human movement. Another investigation focuses on contamination from boats, over-fishing - and environmental change as the three noteworthy reasons for harm to marine biological communities in the waters around the locale. Researchers state about each edge of the world's seas has been harmed somehow or another by human action. Different zones said to endure comparative influences are the North Sea, the South and East China oceans, the east shore of North America and the Mediterranean Sea. The principal worldwide scale investigation of human effect on marine biological communities says the most significant harm is brought about by environmental change. The examination found that noteworthy increments in water temperatures have just been seen in the North Atlantic. What is more, an unnatural weather change is anticipated to raise temperatures to fluctuate degrees in different territories additionally. The investigation likewise noticed that seas are ending up increasingly acidic as they ingest carbon dioxide, and plants are being influenced by expanded bright radiation. 

Over-fishing 

Kim Selkoe (2008), co-creator of the investigation, said that examination found that 80 percent of the world's sea is fished. "The other truly astonishing thing to me what our fishing information demonstrated 80 percent of the world's sea is fished," Selko said. "There's no place left for the fish to cover up... fishing watercraft are just actually all over." While subsistence fishing limitedly affects sea ecologies, high-sway business fishing dumps a great many pounds of undesirable dead fish, winged animals, and warm-blooded animals once again into the sea. This has compromised numerous types of turtles, winged animals, whales, and dolphins with elimination. While subsistence fishing affects sea ecologies very little, high effect business fishing dumps a huge number of pounds of undesirable dead fish, flying creatures and warm-blooded animals once more into the sea. High effect business fishing is one of the guilty parties. This has undermined the lives of numerous types of turtles, feathered creatures, whales and dolphins with termination. As per the discoveries, shipping traffic is the third biggest reason for harm. "When you take a gander at the guide of the ship traffic, it's only a strong inclusion of the world's seas," Selkoe said. "The fuel gets spilled, there's clamor contamination which is exasperating to whales and such... which has a noteworthy effect on the biological system." Ms Selkoe said spilled fuel, and clamor contamination majorly affects the biological community. It's prescribed that moving delivery lines from touchy territories like coral reefs and mainland shelf could fundamentally lessen the effect on sea life (BBC Caribbean News, 2008). 

Analysis of Tourism effects 

As it is known, human exercises have been recognizably changing reef frameworks for quite a long time. Researchers have thought that it was hard to perceive the gauge for what a reef should resemble (Knowlton & Jackson, 2008). Bryantet al. (1997) examine that a worldwide stock of Earth's coral reefs assesses that as of now almost 60 percent are in danger because of the activities of people. At that point, numerous scientist found that the risks to coral reefs and reef species harm are environmental change and coral dying, contamination, malady, waterfront advancement and overflow, exchange coral and live reef species, overharvesting, dispatch groundings and grapple harm, marine garbage and rubbish, amphibian intrusive species and oil and gas investigation, Climate change, overfishing, and contamination are the three fundamental dangers of worry to current coral reef preservation endeavors. An examination by Hughes this valuable asset is in decay around the globe because of various anthropogenic-related factors, for example, an Earth-wide temperature boost, overfishing, contamination, and even the travel industry (Hughes 2003). As indicated, he real weight on the coral reef biological community originates from modern advancement, improvement of ports furthermore, seaward moorings and contamination from vast urban communities. 

Anthropogenic effects because of human exercises have corrupted the coral reef natural surroundings and diminished the coral spread by more than 50 percent of general reefs. In Southeast Asia, coral reef additionally progressively undermined by, beachfront improvement, overfishing and atmosphere change. A large number of these and different examinations have talked about the requirement for future research to analyze which one causes more effect and why some recreationists and voyagers take part in these depreciative practices and if these people comprehend and care about the delicacy of reefs and other parts of the marine condition. There are numerous travel industry exercises that reason impacts coral reefs. In the Caribbean shores, over 80% guests take part in entertainment exercises in the state's beachfront and marine zone with most of these people taking part in scuba jumping (200 000 every year) or swimming (3 million every year) when visiting. 

Swimming and jumping give direct physical effects and has been the subject of extensive examination and is generally all around archived in writing. The harm perpetrated by jumpers and swimmers comprises for the most of breaking delicate, fanned corals or making sores enormous corals. The two discovered that one of the travel industry exercises, which is scuba jumping, expanded the potential for trampling and devastating natural results, for example, coral breakage at Kealakekua Bay. Numerous scientists consider that scuba plunging and swimming have exactly exhibited to cause physical harm to coral reefs and related beach front assets. Adequate preparation of jumpers and swimmers will extraordinarily lessen adverse effect towards coral reefs. 

Fishing and gathering incorporate into direct impact to coral reefs. This can add to over-abuse of reef species and compromising nearby survival of jeopardized species. Gathering of marine gifts by visitors is presumably inconsequential however there still is an average showcase for marine knick-knack in light of a specific vacationer request. The interest can be diminished by expanded mindfulness. It is communicated with the assessment that, the expansion in human activity on these islands likely has numerous impacts. One anthropogenic reef aggravation is overfishing, where people have angled down the trophic dimensions of reefs, prompting trophic course impacts and a perpetual change of reefs from their perfect state. The equivalent goes to the implications of overfishing that enhance other anthropogenic consequences for reefs. This can be seen with eutrophication of coral reefs, where expanded supplements from farming spillover cause extended green growth development that can be unchecked due to the fishing drained supplies of herbivorous reef life forms. The last report expressed that overfishing as the significant nearby danger influencing 55% of reefs, through an expansion in business fishing furthermore, substantial trawling. Around 30% of families in the Caribbean, for instance, had one individual who partook in recreational fisheries in 2004. At an ongoing gathering on the worldwide status of coral reefs, overfishing was considered one of the three most genuine dangers to reefs. Grapple is one of the issues that make coral reefs harm severely. Physical harm from stays and particularly watercraft groundings can be severe. Grapple harm further relies upon the kind of coral network and corresponding to the measure of the watercraft (for example weight of the stay and length of grapple chain). Recuperation of coral harm from watercraft groundings is extremely moderate. Grapple harm can be maintained a strategic distance from to a substantial degree by introducing perpetual moorings, assigning jettys and giving sufficient data on tying down and mooring. 

Conclusion 

From the exploration that has been conducted, it is found and contended that there are commonly a couple of activities that cause harm to the coral reefs in the group of Caribbean Islands. These activities include scuba plunging, swimming, fishing, and journey trips. Aside from that, the examination demonstrates that the fundamental cause of harm on the coral reefs in the tourism industry is swimming. Since swimming is an essential activity and is exceptionally executed in the Caribbean region, it is proposed that policies should be implemented to minimize the damages. For example of rules of constraining the number of vacationers to take part in swimming at once or every day could be implemented. Observing the conveying limit is the primary key. The experts can diminish the number of vacationers who seek swimming just as other the travel industry ocean exercises and it will continue to damage the coral reefs. Aside from that, the coral reefs in the area of the Caribbean Islands are estimated to be in reasonably fine circumstance, given that there are substantial neighbourhood impacts like contamination, sedimentation, etc. With respect to that, it is recommend that the region should be gazetted as secured zones, so exercises presenting noteworthy dangers to reefs, for example, accumulation of corals, fish and reef fauna, trawling and mooring on reefs are disallowed. 

Effective compliance of fishing guidelines inside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has been fruitful in securing fish populaces. Be that as it may, coral mortality and macroalgae bounty demonstrated no reaction to the nearness of MPAs. That was clarified by the general disappointment of MPAs in the Caribbean to represent dangers, for example, land spillovers and sea warming. Shockingly, the debasement of the coral reef network inside MPAs may, in the long haul, rout their constructive outcome on fish populaces. This further features the requirement for an all-encompassing control of human stressors. 

The eventual fate of coral reefs in the Caribbean and the administrations they give to a developing human populace rely upon how soon nations in the district become truly dedicated to directing human dangers, Although coral reefs will encounter advantages of controlling fishing, farming extension, sewage or sea warming, plainly hidden every one of these dangers is the human populace. The standard increment of the world's human populace from 6 billion today to 9 billion for the year 2050 proposes that coral reefs are probably going to observe a substantial environmental emergency in the coming 50 years if powerful preservation techniques, including arrangements on populace arranging, are not executed soon. 

Reference 

Intan R, Abdul R, Khairil N, Yusu M, Arif F, Salim N, Mohd S (2018). Tourism Sea Activities that Cause Damages Towards Coral Reefs in Caribbean Islands. 

Knowlton, N. and J. B. C Jackson. (2008). Shifting Baselines, Local Impacts, and Global Change on Coral Reefs. 

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. (2009). NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program goals & objectives 2010-2015. 

Hughes, TP et al. (2003). Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. Science (301): 929-933. 

Wafar, M.V.M., Muley, E.V. and Yennawar, P. (2000), “Status of the coral reefs of the Gulf of Kachchh, India," 9th International Coral Reef Symposium. 

Bbc Caribbean News (2010). http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2008/02/080215_caribbeansea.shtml 

Science Daily News (2017). Humans Have Caused Profound Changes in Caribbean Coral Reefs. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108150436.htm 

National Geographics (2018). North America: Physical Geography. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/north-america-physical-geography/ 

KA Selkoe, CV Kappel, F Micheli, C D'agrosa, BS Halpern, S Walbridge (2008). A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems .