Environmental factors and the
Mesoamerican Reef
By: Marie Beaupré-Olsen
Introduction
. A section of the nearly 700-mile-long Mesoamerican Reef
that reaches from Mexico to Honduras, the Belize reef
suffered a severe bleaching in 1998, with a loss of 50
percent of its coral in many areas, including much of its
distinctive staghorn coral.Since the bleaching, its decline
has continued, due to global warming of the world's seas,
agricultural pollution, development, and increasing
tourism, which has given rise to more coastal
development and an invasion of cruise ships. Some severe
which will be explored in this powerpoint are farming and
mining practices and fishing.
Farming and mining Practices
• Around the world there is a lot of destruction
happening. This is the process which a habitat is no
longer able to support its species resulting the the
reductions of biodiversity. The main human influences
leading to this are destruction for agriculture,
urbanization, mining, logging, trawling and urban
sprawl. This issue is ranked the primary cause of
species extinction. Habitat degradation, fragmentation,
and pollution are aspects of habitat destruction, but
not necessarily driving extreme destruction of habitat.
They rather result in desertification, deforestation, and
coral reef degradation.
Mining Practices
• Human began to mine the ocean floor for diamonds,
gold, silver, metal ores and gravel mines in the 1950’s.
Metal compounds, gravels, sands and gas hydrates are
also mined in the ocean. Mining manganese nodules
containing nickel, copper and cobalt began in the
1960’s. Mining the ocean can be devastating to the
natural ecosystems. This pulls up the ocean floor
resulting in widespread destruction of marine animal
habitats, as well as wiping out huge numbers of fish
and invertebrates. When the ocean floor is mined a
cloud of sediment rises up in the water, interfering with
photosynthetic processes, in addition to introducing
heavy metals into the food chain.
Mining
Mining: BP oil spill
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-PikuXTYY
• Largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of
petroleum history.
• Estimated 4.9 millions barrels of oil spilled approximately
53,000 barrels a day. Open for 100 days.
• The spill caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife
habitats.
• Tar balls were found in shrimp nets, tar balls found washed
up on shore, and oil trails found in wakes of fishing boats.
Crude lies in deep water and sands on shore.
• A research team found oil on the bottom of the seafloor in
February 2011 that did not seem to be degrading.
Mining: Bp oil spill
• The corals are being suffocated by the oil coating that experts
predict is occurring in result of the oil plumes that were
extended underwater in the gulf.
• What is effecting the reef is not pure oil itself, but natural gas
and the dispersant chemical used by BP, Corexit. This chemical
effects the corals similar to how dishwashing detergent would
have. It negatively impacts their ability to colonize and
reproduce.
Farming
• Rising population densities, associated coastal
development, and increased industrial
activities are resulting in increased pressure
on Caribbean coral reefs. A wide range of
human activities directly threaten coral reefs,
resulting in degrading in many areas. Even if
the reefs are in the ocean there are indicators
that point to land based sources that threat
the reefs.
• Anthropogenic influences are estimated to
threaten 60 percent of the world’s reefs.
Farming
Runoff and erosion are natural environmental
processes, however human activities increase
both these processes. Evidently this increases the
level of sediments and pollutants into costal
ecosystems. The conversion of natural land to
agricultural usage will transport other pollutants,
such as excess nutrients from fertilizers, and toxic
compounds found in herbicides in pesticides.
Additionally the conversion of land to urban
areas increases the river born pollution which
significantly negatively impacts coral reef
ecosystems.
Farming
• Human sewage and fertilizers leaking into the
ocean leads to the rapid growth of algae
choking coral polyps, cutting off their supply
of light and oxygen.
Fishing
• The harvesting of reef resources is taking a toll
on the health of coral reef ecosystems.
Overfishing leads to an unbalanced
ecosystem, allowing more competitive or less
desirable organisms to become dominant.
Fishing methods such as explosives and
poisons severely harms reefs and reefs
organisms. Harvest of coral for souvenirs
depletes healthy corals or substrate where
coral larvae might be settled.
Fishing
Fisherman are often caught using cyanide, which
temporarily stuns the fish for easy collection.
Cyanide use is a serious threat to coral reef, as it
kills corals and other reef organisms. The use of
dynamite is also used for the easy collection of
fish, but in result the reefs are reduced to rubble.
-International trade is driving overfishing and the
selected removal of key groups of coral reefs.
Fishing
Eutrophication
Farming along with mining and the use of Cyanide lead to what is
called eutrophication. This process is known to accelerate when the
numbers of Nitrogen and phosphorous in the water increases.
These compounds cause algae to grow in excess, which blocks the
sunlight for other organisms. Dead matter sinks to the bottom and
are decomposed. Decomposers consume oxygen when
decomposing reducing the quantity of oxygen available for other
living species in the water. Due to this other organisms die which
are then decomposed making less oxygen available. The build up of
organic matter reduces the depth of the water resulting in the
water being warmer. Oxygen doesn’t dissolve as well in warm water
as a result oxygen content available for organisms such as Coral and
reef organisms is decreased further.
Proposal: Objectives to protect
Mesoamerican reef.
• Objective 1: Indentify, prioritize, and sustainably manage all viable fish
spawning aggregation sites in the four Mesoamerican Reef countries,
including selected nursery sites. These predictable reproductive locations are critical
for the survival of many species of fish that come together to spawn and for the long term
ecological sustainability. Many of those are pointing towards extinction.
• Objective 2: Secure long- term conservation funding for the
Mesoamerican Reef by establishing an endowed financial mechanism.
objective will address the lack of steady financing for the Mesoamerican Reef Eco region
through the creation of the first conservation fund. It is designed to attract fund to
multilateral, bilateral, and private sources.
This
Proposal: Objectives to protect
Mesoamerican Reef.
• Objective 3: Significantly reduce agro- industrial and shrimp farming
effluents that drain into the Reef system by improving the management
practices of key producers. This goal is to reduce soil runoff and agro- chemical
effluents from agriculture. Identification of the most damaging practices for the reef will
engage the companies to implement better terms. Ultimately the goal is to demonstrate that
by minimizing the environmental impacts of shrimp farming can help reduce its costs and
increase the industries profits.
• Objective 4: Establish at least one highly effective environmental law
group per country poised to address the most critical threats and glaring
environmental abuse in the Mesoamerican Reef. This aims to develop a network
of environmental law experts between Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Mexican state
of Quintana Roo to address the most significant issues affecting the Mesoamerican Reef,
including enforcing the laws to protect important costal and marine resources.
Proposal: Objectives to protect
Mesoamerican Reef.
• Objective 5: Ensure that a critical mass of hotel chains and cruise lines
adopt eco- friendly policies and implement improved construction and
service practices in the Mesoamerican Reef. A successful alliance between
governments, main hotel chains, cruise lines, and marine recreation service providers should
guarantee the health and integrity of the reef. This will hopefully lead to the strengthening of
local economies and long- term returns from an fragile natural resource.
Conclusion
• There are scientific outlines that prove that if these issues
continue by 2030 the Mesoamerican reef will be bleached,
and destructed. The ocean plays a critical role in removing
carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It
regulates Earth's climate. The ocean is an increasingly
important source of biomedical organisms with enormous
potential for fighting disease. We are aware of the importance
of tackling those overcharging challenges, and we must
enthusiastically endorse efforts to address them.
Image Sources
• http://www.rivieramaya.info/news/2008/02/d
ive-in-mesoamerican-reef-system.html
• http://www.volunteercamotes.org/2011/coral
-restoration-initiative-project-repairing-thedamage/
• http://www.halkyard-associates.com/
• http://www.starfish.ch/reef/conservation.htm
l
Text Sources for mining and farming
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_destruction
• http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/10/natur
al.wonders.to.see/index.html
• http://marinebio.org/Oceans/oceanresources.asp
• http://www.peachygreen.com/going-green/coralreefs-in-gulf-of-mexico-threatened-by-bp-oil-spill
• http://www.starfish.ch/reef/conservation.html
Text sources for fishing
• http://pdf.wri.org/reefrisk_caribbean_landbas
ed.pdf
• http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/about/ecosystem
s/coralimpacts.html
• http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/cora
lreefs/ch1.shtml
Proposal Sources
• http://www.summitfdn.org/foundation/progr
ams/reef-conservation/programobjectives.html
• http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/travel/
15green.html