Coral Reef Essay: Descriptive Writing How-to Guide

Coral reefs can be called one of the most amazing things created by nature. These structures can be found in tropical and temperate waters. Like many other unique natural phenomena, coral reefs are influenced by human activity these days. This negative impact is one of the significant issues to consider when talking about coral reefs.

By the way, it can be a crucial idea for discussion in your coral reef essay. Maybe, it is even one of the easiest ways to complete coral reef essays. For additional info, just keep reading – we also have some excellent suggestions for you on custom writing service.

1. ❓ What Is a Coral Reef?

When you write about coral reefs, you should have a clear understanding of what is a coral reef ecosystem, and what is a coral. We all saw corals on photos, videos or even live. But what exactly are corals? Are they plants or animals?

Let’s find out!

Corals neither are plants, nor a quaint stone, but living marine polyps that have a unique limestone skeleton structure growing about 15 mm every year. Corals are the lower coelenterate multicellular creatures in the world’s oceans.

Imagine a solid lime cylinder, surrounded from the inside and outside by a soft tissue of cells. In its center is the “mouth” of the coral and then it turns into the abdominal cavity. The coral feeds on plankton, capturing small marine organisms with its tentacles around the mouth, which have mucus that paralyzes the prey.

Corals in their structure are very different. Some corals have a solid skeleton (which is called madrepores), some don’t have it, and some have mixed type of skeleton, like tubular coral.

There are both solitary and colonial corals, which together form a complete barrier, shore reefs or atolls. Old corals die, and new living corals grow on top of them.

Corals, like plants, take energy from light, water and carbon dioxide. This happens because of the unicellular algae that live in their tissues. In the daytime the coral functions like a plant, and at night it lives the life of an animal. Another coral reef features are the abilities to glow when the coral gets under ultraviolet rays or illuminated by blue light.

2. 📃 Coral Reef Essay Structure

Well, now you know what corals and coral reef are. It’s time to think about your assignment and sketch the essay outline.

Whether you’re writing a descriptive or argumentative essay on coral reefs, the structure remains the same:

• In the coral reef introduction, you may present a short overview of what are coral reefs and point out the central thesis of your writing. A thesis statement generator for expository essay might help you to come up with an informative intro.
• The body of your essay must support the thesis statement by coral reef facts and research results. How can you defend the thesis statement of your paper? Remember, each body paragraph must present a particular idea to prove your essay thesis.
• In the essay conclusion, you have to summarize your body and present the essay topic. Avoid repeating the central thesis, but rather sum up all facts and arguments. Don’t forget to keep it short.

3. 🐠 21 Coral Reef Essay Topics & Research Ideas

Now comes the most exciting part of our article. We’ve prepared a bunch of essay topic ideas on coral reefs.

Keep reading!

3.1. Coral Reef Essay Topics: Basics

If you’re going to write a descriptive essay, you may try one of the suggested topic ideas below:

1. Types of coral reefs. The barrier reef, fringing reef, atoll, and ribbon reef are all the types of coral reef. Give definitions to each type and describe their peculiarities in your coral reef essay.
2. Famous coral reefs. What is the largest coral reef? Which one is the longest? Which coral reef is called the deepest photosynthetic reef? You can answer these questions if you investigate some of the most famous reefs in your coral reef essay.
3. Coral reefs feeding. Are you surprised? In fact, they do eat, and you can learn more about it when covering this topic in the coral reef essay. When do corals eat? Find the answers and present them in your coral reef essay.
4. Coral reef animals and plants. Discover what animals live in the coral reef? How do they feed? You may also want to create your own Great Barrier Reef animals list to find out more about the coral reef ecosystem.
5. The corals and their place in the marine ecosystem. What is the importance of the Great Barrier Reef? Why are coral reefs important to the entire ocean ecosystem?

6. Cold-water corals. Did you know that corals can live in cold water? Find out more about these fantastic creatures.
7. Importance of coral reefs for the environment. Provide some reasons why coral reefs are important for the environment and humanity.

3.2. Coral Reef Research Topics: Human Impact

Human impact on coral reefs is significant. That’s why we need to protect them. Check the topics on how are humans affecting coral reefs below:

8. Overfishing. Coral reef animals are a significant food source for people. But some coral reef species play a significant role in its ecosystem. Find out how fishing impacts coral reefs.

9. Marine pollution. Tons of garbage, plastic, and human waste is thrown every day into the ocean. Explore how the pollution affects coral reef destruction.
10. Sewage. Discover how untreated wastewater impacts tropical coral reef ecosystem.
11. Coral reefs and climate change. Examine how does temperature affect coral reefs?
12. Coral preservation. Think, how you can help to save coral reefs?
13. Ocean acidification. Find out how it impacts coral reef sands.
14. Coral bleaching causes and consequences. How does coral bleaching affect marine life? Explore why is coral bleaching bad for the environment.

15. Destructive fishing. How do cyanide fishing, bottom trawling, blast or dynamite fishing, and muro-ami affect the Great Barrier Reef organisms?
16. Vacations and reefs. Everyone wants to spend their holiday in a picturesque place and try boating, snorkeling, fishing, and diving. Tourists touch and collect corals, drop anchors on reefs, etc. Explore how does tourism affect coral reefs? Explain why this threatens reefs and offer solutions to avoid it.
17. Resorts and reefs. Explore the negative impact of a tourist resort on reef ecosystem.
18. Sedimentation and its effects on coral reefs. Find out how construction, farming, mining and logging and deforestation cause erosion and its negative impact on coral reefs.
19. What would happen if the Great Barrier Reef was destroyed? Express your opinion.
20. Coral reefs and medicine. How do coral species can contribute to medicine and disease treatments?
21. Sugar industry and coral reefs. Discover how does sugar industry affect coral reefs.

Definitely, human activity and its impact is not the only topic you can consider in coral reef essays. If you are really interested, you can look through scientific articles on coral reefs and find out the most burning issues.

If you want to write descriptive essays on a coral reef, we have additional tips for you. Our site will also be helpful if you need to write a geography essay.

Well, we’re all living on Earth, and we cannot just hide from global issues. Think of how everyone can make the world a better place for a living. Share your thoughts with Custom Writing team in comments below!

Learn more on this topic:

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• Halloween Essay: How to Write, Topics and Essay Ideas

🔗 References

1. How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Jennifer Frost, GrammarCheck
2. Descriptive Essays: Purdue Writing Lab
3. Coral Reefs Essay: Bartleby
4. Developing A Thesis: Harvard College Writing Center
5. Corals and Coral Reefs: Smithsonian Ocean