Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am planning to do a science project on coral reefs, because I am really interested in learning how to stop their imminent destruction due to global warming.
For a science project, I was thinking of testing the effects of some harmful chemical that leaches into the ocean, like sunscreen chemicals, on coral reefs, or even propose a solution for coral bleaching due to excessive heat temperatures.
Do you think that it is practical for me to do a science project on coral reefs? Would these kinds of experiments require really expensive living corals?

Thank you so much!

Hi there,

That sounds like a really great idea! Unfortunately, I don't know much about working with corals. However, when I searched through some old threads in this forum, I was able to find one where the original poster asked a similar question as yours on how to work with corals. The expert who replied mentioned that live coral is expensive and difficult to keep and recommended the poster to use dead coral instead. Here is the link to that thread: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 25&t=12976. Hopefully you'll be able to get some ideas from looking through that!

Let us know if you have anymore questions!

Best,
Connie

Hello,

I'm not sure if you're interested in going this direction, but perhaps you can test the effects of a chemical on different organisms found in coral reefs, and then examine how such changes might affect the ecosystem as a whole.

Here are some project ideas that may help you:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

I hope you find this information useful.
-Derek