The Great Barrier Reef

One of the most important and most beautiful ecosystems in the world, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is in grave danger. Scientific groups like the WWF have predicted the almost complete destruction of this ecosystem by 2050, due to the increase of sea temperature, caused by climate change. They believe that the high thermal levels caused by global warming will psychologically stress the corals and lead to “bleach” or lose their symbiotic algae. If short-term, this bleaching process can be recovered from but if prolonged, it can lead to damage and death. Dr. Arnold Dekker, an Australian scientist said, “an increase in frequency of coral bleaching may be one of the first tangible effects of global warming.” Other reasons that coral reefs may soon be extinct are many; changes in sea level, elevated storm frequency and intensity, altered ocean circulation, variation in precipitation and land runoff, and increasing ocean acidification.

This article is an example of hypothesis-based science. The part that is hypothesis-based science is the research that led to the specific facts about the coral reefs, like the bleaching. They pose the question “if bleaching continues, then The Great Barrier Reef will be dead by 2050. This discovery has had an impact on humans because “the degradation and loss of coral ecosystems in will likely have a wide-ranging impact on the world economy.” How? Because more than 500 million people live very close to the coral reefs, and they rely on them as buffers from storms, and as services for daily subsistence.

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1117-corals.html