Elements of Concern Greenhouse Gases Causing Coral Bleaching

June 22, 2023 By Leah

The way the periodic table helps me understand coral bleaching better is by figuring out what elements in are in the nutrients that the coral uses to survive and what elements the coral is made off, whether those nutrients and coral alkaline Earth metals or non-metals.

The environmental issues I will be talking about are coral bleaching and how greenhouse gases cause coral to bleach.

The elements I will give information about because they may be connected to greenhouse gases causing the bleaching process include carbon dioxide, methane, Nitrogen trifluoride.

Carbon Dioxide is one of the main elements found in greenhouse gases and the biggest problem element. Carbon Dioxide is colourless, odorless gas, and carbon dioxide is very absorbent to water it traps the water molecules inside and causing the water molecules to heat up as a reaction causing the water temperature to rise and, it gets even worse when we bring methane into the mix.

Methane is a ridiculously hot gas and as we know hot air rises but, in this case, hot gas rises so the methane stays in the air not being able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. The methane being in the atmosphere must come down at some point and when it does it gets absorbed by the already hot carbon dioxide molecule and gets even hotter causing the water temperature to rise even more.

Nitrogen Trifluoride is a strong gas and what I mean by strong is it can eat away any biological material including the coral and its nutrients starting the bleaching process turning the coral white. How it gets into the water is by melting and little, tiny particles get swept away by the air and then trapped in water or it can simply be just dumped into water by a factory.