An ongoing debate in marine conservation concerns the relative effects of global
ID: 292239 • Letter: A
Question
An ongoing debate in marine conservation concerns the relative effects of global-scale (e.g., climate change, ocean acidification) and local-scale (e.g., pollution, fishing) stressors. The long-held belief for many conservation scientists has been that coral reef degradation is driven primarily by local-scale stressors, such that isolated reefs are healthier and more resilient. To evaluate this hypothesis, Bruno and Valdivia (2016) compared the percent coral cover with human population density (Figure 1). Based on the graphs below, what is the relationship, if any, between percent coral cover and human population density (3 pts)? a. b. Do these graphs support or refute the hypothesis that coral reef degradation is driven primarily by local-scale stressors (2 pts)? 1 8 c. What are the implications for coral reef conservation (5 points)? SUBREGIONS . Andaman /Nicobar e Antilles e Bahamas Central America - E. Indonesia E. Canibbean e E. Indian Ocean Florida Keys Great Barrier Ree e Hawaian Islands Mesoamerican BR N. Central Australia Philippines SE. Pacific 10 15 S. China Sea . SW. Pacific 10 15 Logarithm of human population density within 50 km Taiwan /Japan Figure 1: The global relationship between coral cover and the logarithm of human population density . W. Indonesia 8 within 50 km of each reef location. Responses in figure A are raw smoothed with partial residuals from the g account for spatial autocorrelation . W Pacific eneralized additive mixed effect models (GAMM) toExplanation / Answer
a) according to the given graph we can see this that the ratio of the coral density coverage to the human population density is having certain values. in this graph at the initial level the population of human is 0% as that of coral which having some values of it % of coverage. this a global relation of population density between the human and the coral.
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b) yes this graph supporting the hypothesis of degradtion of coral by the local strssor in the way that due to the population growth the consumption of ecological energy get imbalancing which make unable to proper growth of the coral. due to which it like a local barries to them. the population is also a main factor in this. the human global population density is so high that its act like local stressor to the coral.
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c) implications for the coral reef conservations are as follows-
1) stop polluting the environment.
2) do not imbalance the ecolocgical energy cycle which create the unsuitable for the coral to survive.
3) population density of human growth per coral coverage should be maintain and limited.
4) do not overlap with the environemt of the coral as coral living conditions and human living conditions are different.