What are 5 importance of coral reefs?
protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms. provide habitats and shelter for many marine organisms. are the source of nitrogen and other essential nutrients for marine food chains. assist in carbon and nitrogen fixing.
Why is the coral reef important?
Benefits of coral reef ecosystems Coral reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion, provide jobs for local communities, and offer opportunities for recreation. They are also are a source of food and new medicines. Over half a billion people depend on reefs for food, income, and protection.
What is the economic importance of coral reefs?
Healthy coral reefs contribute to fishing and tourism, providing millions of jobs and contributing to economies all over the world. Scientists develop important drugs from coral reef organisms as treatments for cancer, arthritis, and viruses. But corals are threatened by pollution and climate change.
What is the importance of coral reefs essay?
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth. Coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species.
Why are coral reefs important to the ecosystem?
Coral reefs serve many roles within the marine ecosystem, but they are also important to the way our global ecosystems work as well. Coral reefs protect coastlines from the damaging effects of waves and tropical storms. They provide habitats and shelter for thousands of marine organisms. Coral reefs help with nutrient recycling.
Why are coral reef animals important for medicine?
This biodiversity is considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century. Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.
Why are the Great Barrier Reef so important?
They: protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms provide habitats and shelter for many marine organisms are the source of nitrogen and other essential nutrients for marine food chains help with nutrient recycling. This is why large numbers of marine species live in reefs.
Where are coral reefs found in the world?
Coral reefs can be found all over the world. The largest of all these reefs are found in shallow, tropical, and subtropical waters, and one of the very biggest of those — and the most endangered — is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which measures more than 1,500 miles long. Why are coral reefs important to the ecosystem?