| Atomosphere |
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| The concentration of atomspheric carbon dioxide has increased in the last 300 years, i.e., ever since the idustrial revolution, due to the process of burning fossil fuels, having a dramatic impact on the global climate. Marine ecosystems like coral reefs play a vital part in determining the ocean-atomosphere, and the exchange of carbon dioxide. They have been very impacted by pollution and overfishing, but the increase of atomspheric CO2 is the worst of it yet. It will seriously impact the future health of the coral reef by hurting the corals ability to produce it's hard calcium carbonate skeleton. Coral contributes to the ocean's carbon cycle through photosynthesis, respiration, calcium carbonate production and dissoulution. The coral itself does not actually undertake photosynthesis, but the algae does which has a symbiotic relationship with the coral. Algae are autotrophs, which means they are "organisms that can synthesise all the complex organic molecules they need using only simple inorganic compounds." (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 2001) Coral on the other side of it is a heterotroph, "an organism that cannot synthesise all the organic molefules it needs using only inorganic compounds." (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 2001) Instead they oxidise organic carbon to carbon dioxide to make their cellular energy. These processes control the distribution of carbon dioxide in seawater, determine the fate and transformations of carbon dioxide and eventually determine the exchange of carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atomsphere. |
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| Photosynthesis: CO2 + H2O --> CH2O + O2 Respiration: CH2O + O2 --> CO2 + H2O Calcium Carbonate formation: CO2 (aq) + H2O <---> H2CO3 H2CO3- <---> H+ + HCO3-2 HCO3 <---> H+ + CO3-2 Ca + CO3 ----> CaCO3 (s) In coral reef systems, hard coral calcification produces carbon dioxide, resulting in the fact that coral reef can act as a source of carbon dioxide to the atomsphere. Algae on the other hand, photosynthetically fix carbon dioxide into organic matter, potentially removing carbon dioxide from the seawater. The result is that the coral reef can act as a sink of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The balance of calfification and algae photosynthesis alters what happens to the carbon dioxide, either being stored in the ocean or remaining in the atomsphere, impactnig the global climate. It seems so strange that as coral reef health declines and algae on the reef increases, the potential for coral reefs to remove carbon dioxide from the atomsphere increases. This complexity is still poorly understood by scientists and specialists alike. |
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