Coral Reef, Sea Uchins, Marine Fish, and Macroalgae

After graduating I decided to take an advanced topic course in molecular biology that discusses the impacts of temperature, fishing, pollution and other factors have caused coral reefs around the world to bleach (this is the term used for a coral reef structure to become white instead of it's natural healthy beautiful colors). This is by far one of the most interesting classes I have taken. There have been hundreds of experiments and articles published that uncover extremely fascinating bleaching causes/mechanisms uncovered by clever scientists around the world.

I got the chance to read over a dozen scholarly articles about this topic, but the message I want to send to my friends who are not molecular biologist.

1. We should stop polluting the air. Stop overfishing! Protect the coral! This does affect the ocean and ocean life believe it or not. It doesn't just cause Los Angeles skyline to look brownish grey, the actual molecules that become absorbed by the ocean prevent life (particularly coral reefs) from building and growing, and this causes a negative feedback loop that causes fish to die, and economies to fail. It is a little complicated to explain, but if you read an article titled Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification by Hoegh-Guldberg you will be amazed how things really work molecularly. If you don't understand chemistry you might have trouble grasping this concept, but things are happening at a molecular level that are blocking growth in the the ocean. It's not very intuitive, but it is so important to learn. It is true that the world is a resilient place where organisms have evolved and thrived over centuries, but we are causing damage faster than we ever used to! I can probably write a few pages or more about this topic, but I just wanted to give everyone something to look at if they visited my page today.