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Impact of Climate Change on the Coral Reef and Honeybees

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Environmental Studies
Wordcount: 1506 words Published: 18th May 2020

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Many animals and plants are suffering from immature human behavior, which would reflect with severe uncontrolled issues. Climate change is one of the most significant problems in which society still not aware of the consequences, which affects the life-cycle. In other words, if any element of the life-cycle extinct, all the organisms will be suffering from this imbalance. Moreover, direct action should be taken now to avoid deterioration in the future. This essay will examine the causes of the problem related to honeybee and coral reef and props several solutions to solve the issues.

One of the main problems for coral reefs is the increase in water temperature and ocean acidification. Which leads to losing microscopic algae (the producer of food for corals) causing coral bleaching. Although they are considered as the most severe issue to coral, they can also be affected by even distant human action. That is to say. Unfortunately, people pose the greatest threats to coral by overfishing, pollution, and changing ocean chemistry. (Knowlton 2018)

This global reduction of oceanic acidification may be harmful to the organism’s dependent on calcium carbonate for shell formation such as corals, shellfish, and urchins. The net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the key to evaluating the efficacy of that method as a climate change mitigation measure. Another implication is that the ocean has already absorbed globally between 20 % and 35 % of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, which has been transported to the deep ocean by global circulation patterns (Sabine et al. 2004). In the coming decades, this phenomenon,” could affect some of the most fundamental biological and geochemical processes of the sea and seriously alter the fundamental structure of pelagic and benthic ecosystems (Richard A. Feely et al., 2008).

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Another solution for increasing the water temperature and ocean acidification is to create a marine protected area. Marine Protected areas are the only mainstream conservation-focused area-based measure to increase the quality and extent of ocean protection. In addition, they are a valuable tool for keeping reefs healthy. (Knowlton 2018) Establishing MPA networks is critical to maintaining climate change resilience and rebuilding ecological and social resilience. Australia had created the largest marine reserve network in the world. (IUCN.org 2017)

A drawback for this solution is that most existing marine areas do not have sufficient human and financial resources to perform maintenance properly and management measures. Another implication of marine protected areas is that they are not impervious to all climate change.

It is clear that the side –effects of any development need to be born in mind.  (IUCN.org 2017)

 However, this reduction and protection have protected marine life as well as protecting livelihoods in addition, to enhance the local economy and give tourists opportunities to explore nature on the earth. They also have a unique role to play in securing long-term scientific information and allow them to study species hobbit.

Moving to the second problem, which is related to the honeybee. Although the total value of bee pollination in crop production is extremely difficult to estimate, different estimates have been produced, and everyone agrees that the contribution made by bees is enormous (Goulson 2003) they showed threats related to overusing pesticides. A solution for this issue could be faced by finding other types of bees, which succeed to prove their work efficiently as pollinators of some crop in some settings such as the blue orchard, the bumblebee, and alfalfa leafcutter.(Allchin 2018 )

One of the implications for this issue could be that there is now growing appreciation that there are alternatives to the honeybee and that in some situations the alternatives may be better12. In cold conditions, and when it is raining, honeybees will not forage13. In an unpredictable climate such as that of Northern and Western Europe, this can be important, particularly when growing crops such as apples that flower early in the year when a spell of poor weather is likely. (Goulson 2003)

Another implication might be rustled in yield of crops may be limited if there are insufficient bees to visit all of the flowers. For example, in fields exceeding 12 ha in size, the yield of field beans was reduced through inadequate pollination by long-tongued bumblebees24. At present, the area of land in the EC and USA under entomophilous crops is increasing, and some researchers have predicted that we will soon be facing a serious shortage of both wild and managed bees5,26. If pollination is inadequate, then farmers may be tempted to switch to growing crops that do not require insect pollination27. (Goulson 2003)

To solve the issues farmers could reduce the consumption of pesticides although Pesticides are an economical method to control insects (Allchin 2018), They do not require labor and can be applied for large areas with high efficiency and speed. One of the main implications of reducing the use of pesticides is affecting the quality, and the prices of agricultural crops as the use of insecticides means obtaining high-quality crops without being damaged from pests. Another implication for this is Insufficient use of pesticides leads to crop exposure to pests that will damage them and cause high financial loss to farmers. Which will lead to a shortage of food supplies for the consumer and prices increases

Even though there are several implications, the advantages of using pesticides have overcome the disadvantages, for instance, increasing the environmental health and affordable vegetable markets for consumers. 

In conclusion, having looked at different problems associated with the environment has become an increasingly worrying issue. Due to the number of factors such as the overusing of pesticide, which would reflect on threating honeybees and increasing the water temperatures and ocean acidity, this would lead to rising in the carbon dioxide. Solutions were discussed in order to solve these problems from deterioration in the future. If the government and the individuals co-operate towards solving these problems, a healthy environmental society would be the result. Finally, awareness of the overuse of chemicals and climate change should be educated in schools.

Reference list:

  1. knowlton,N.(2018)`Corals and coral reefs`,The Ocean Portal Team,Apr 2018 ,available:http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/corals-and-coral-reefs[accessed Feb2019].
  2. Feely, R.A., Sabine, C.L., Hernandez-Ayon, J.M., Ianson, D. and Hales, B., 2008. Evidence for upwelling of corrosive” acidified” water onto the continental shelf. science, 320(5882), pp.1490-1492.
  3. Marine protected areas and climate change (n.d.) IUCN.org , available: https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-protected-areas-and-climate-change [ accessed Nov 2017]
  4. Allchin,C.(2018) `Plan bee: the rise of alternative pollinators` , The New Times ,21th Aug , available : http://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/science/bees-pollination-farming.html [accessed 26 Feb 2019].
  5. Goulson, D., 2003. Conserving wild bees for crop pollination. Journal of Food Agriculture and Environment, 1, pp.142-144.
  6. 1. Robinson, W.S., Nowogrodzki, R. and Morse, R.A., 1989. The value of honey bees as pollinators of US crops. Am. Bee J.
  7. 2. Southwick, E.E. and Southwick Jr, L., 1992. Estimating the economic value of honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) as agricultural pollinators in the United States. Journal of Economic Entomology, 85(3), pp.621-633.
  8. 12. Westerkamp, C., 1991. Honeybees are poor pollinators—why?. Plant Systematics and Evolution, 177(1-2), pp.71-75.
  9. 13.Willmer, P.G., Bataw, A.A.M. and Highes, J.P. 1994. The superiority of bumblebees to honeybees as pollinators: insect visits to raspberry flowers. Ecol. Entomol. 19: 271-284.
  10. Free, J.B. and Williams, I.H., 1976. Pollination as a factor limiting the yield of field beans (Vicia faba L.). The Journal of Agricultural Science, 87(2), pp.395-399.
  11. Borneck, R. and Merle, B., 1989. Essai d’une evaluation de l’incidence economique de l’abeille pollinisatrice dans l’agriculture européenne. Apiacta, 24(1), pp.33-38.
  12. Torchio, P.F. 1990. Diversification of pollination strategies for U.S. crops. Environ. Entomol. 19: 1649-1656.
  13. Osborne J.L., Williams I.H. and Corbet, S.A. 1991. Bees, pollination and habitat change in the European community. Bee World 72: 99116.

 

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