Biodiversity in the Underwater World
Every year hundreds of thousands of people go diving on coral reefs around the world. It’s an indescribable experience. There are countless fish, tall corals, colorful algae, and other creatures and plants that are new and foreign to you. It’s amazing. Spending just a few hours engaged on a coral reef will have you hooked for life. It’s like you’ve visited another world and usually the only reason you leave is because your tank is getting low.
When you visit that underwater world, it’s impressive. There are so many different species in one place. And every reef around the world is different. This is called biodiversity. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines biodiversity as biological diversity in an environment as indicated by numbers of different species of plants and animals.
No one knows how many reefs there are under our seas, but there are a lot. Every reef in every ocean is a unique eco-system. Look at a reef in the Indian Ocean versus a reef in the South Pacific or Caribbean. You’ll see completely different species. This biodiversity has been created by evolution and isolation. For nearly 4 billion years, nature has evolved into what it is today. In that time, species have come, gone, and adapted to their surroundings. It’s how the world works.
Scientists are interested in the biodiversity of the ocean because biodiversity helps measure how healthy a location is. If lots of species coexist in one place, it’s healthy. If an eco-system is dull and only a few species thrive, it’s not doing very well.
Science diving explores the biodiversity of the underwater world. By looking at things such as the numbers of hard and soft corals, sponges, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish, they can understand how a reef works. In order to protect theses species they need to learn how things like a rising sea level, coral bleaching, non-native species, and pollution affect biodiversity.
The world needs to maintain the biodiversity that still exists. In areas of the South Pacific there are bays with more species than the entire Caribbean. We need to protect the species and eco-systems that are left. By researching and studying the underwater world, science can help learn about and preserve the world’s remaining coral reefs.
