Ocean Warming & Wildlife

In 2016 itself, warming oceans led to Singapore’s longest coral bleaching incident of 6 months. Previous cases were in 1998 and 2010. 15-20% of the corals died as a result of the bleaching!

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/warming-seas-cause-longest-coral-bleaching-in-spore
Bleached corals at Big Sister’s Island in June 2016 (The Straits Times)

Refer to the info-graphic below to understand more about how corals get bleached. This occurs when water temperatures exceed the bleaching threshold of 31.14 °C.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/corals-adapting-to-warming-seashttp://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/corals-adapting-to-warming-seashttp://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/corals-adapting-to-warming-seas

 

Singapore’s total reef area is about 13.25 km2. Such a widespread area will mean that its respective ecosystem services will be severely impacted, in a negative way. Some of the supporting services that coral ecosystems provide us are (Elliff & Kikuchi, 2017):

  • Provisioning services – Food.
  • Regulating services – Shoreline protection, Habitat maintenance.
  • Cultural services – Recreation.

Are we still at risk of coral bleaching even today? Unfortunately, we are…

https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/vs/gauges/singapore.php
Present risk of coral bleaching (as of April 2018).

There seems to be a likelihood of a warning alert for coral bleaching in the near future (starting from 5 weeks onwards!). This is another issue of increasing concern in Singapore.