The effects of Coral bleaching on fish communities and the effect is so clear especially with the rise in global warming that has seen rise of temperatures hence the death of the most essential organisms especially s the Microscopic algae that has a symbiotic relationship with the coral reefs.
The effects of Coral bleaching on fish communities has seen hundreds of fish species being affected especially in their structure of their communities. Some of the major effects of coral bleaching were experienced in the 1997-1998 El Niño especially in the Indian Ocean. This article describes some of the researched effects of coral breaching on fish species.
There have been changes in the size, biodiversity and composition of fish communities following the decline in coral reefs. Since most of fish have depend on the coral reefs for food and bleeding grounds, decline of the coral reefs has seen more fish dies and even their eggs being easily destroyed by their predators.
Coral bleaching has been accused of disturbing the structure of the fish surrounding. This is because as the coral reefs die they become over populated with algae which dominate the previously coral reefs dominated zones. This has an effect on fish since they have to migrate to other grounds to look for foods as well as bleeding grounds.
Effects of Coral bleaching on fish communities.
In addition a lot of fish may die as a lot of the effects of Coral bleaching on fish communities grows out of control. As mentioned earlier coral reef bleaching leads to either death or weakening of the coral reefs. In turn they are unable to control the amount of carbon dioxide levels in the water where fish due to lack of oxygen which forms a major component for survival in the water. Again many fish may die due to deprivation of air especially if out of water. This is because many fish moves in swarms of thousand of fishes and given that the ocean water is not stable there is lots of water waves most of may be swept to the dry land hence deprived of their medium for oxygen.
The change of environment especially after the death of the coral reefs exposes the fish to more dangers. There some species of algae family that attacks the fish infecting them with poison that halts the normal operation of the fish thus killing thousands of fish.
More so, the change of the structure that does not favor the fish since some predators may invade the region invading on the fish.
From the above description, it is obvious evident that coral bleaching has endangered the lives of many fish species. Indeed there is much worry that more of fish may be affected. This would mean decline of economy as a result of decreased fishing activities as well as tourist activities in the regions that are well habited by coral reefs. Though various organizations, governments of the affected countries and some individuals have been concerned, coral bleaching should be announced an international disaster and educate people on some of the factors that contribute to coral bleaching especially global warming.
People should also be made aware of the value of the coral reefs to their lives and lives of other organisms.
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