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coral reef.jpeg

Coral Reefs

As one might predict coral reefs need clean fresh water to be able to function healthy. Butbecause of lots of pollutants entering the water a lot of reefs are diminishing rapidly. Specificallypollution causes harm by speeding up the growth of algae and lower water quality to name acouple. On top of that pollution makes the reefs more susceptible to disease, stopsreproduction/growth, and alters food structures. There are other factors that can also hurt thereefs them being land based sources of pollution. Stuff like coastal development, deforestation,agricultural runoff, and oil and chemical spills can all impede coral growth. These particularways of pollution are significant to keep an eye on because land based sources are one of thebiggest driving forces for killing coral reefs. Another area that is not often talked about when itcomes to pollution in coral reefs are from fertilizers. Since coral reefs are adapted to lownutrients things such as fertilizers can lead to an excess of nutrients for algae. That then get toobig and block sunlight and steal oxygen from the corals. Not to mention that these fertilizers canalso lead to the creation of microorganisms like bacteria that are pathogens to corals. Inconclusion coral reefs are impacted by a multitude of factors and are dying fast so it is crucialthat human interference is limited. 

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