Human activity detrimental to coral reefs, says study

Human activities like agriculture and urbanisation can lead to the destruction of coral reefs and make their recovery and management difficult, according to research undertaken along the Kenyan coast. These activities increase the rate at which microbes — microscopic plants and animals such as bacteria, fungi, and algae, as well as some animals like sponges and worms — erode the reefs.
Overfishing and drainage from land — such as the one that occurs in Kenya's marine parks — were significant contributors to coral reef degradation, according to a study by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Azores in Portugal, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series.
The study was motivated by the devastation wrought by the 1998 El Niño, when warm water killed around half of Indian Ocean corals, said Tim McClanahan, senior conservation zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and a co-author of the study.

Source: SciDev Net
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