Why Southeast Asia and Australia’s Coral Reefs Became So Rich in Species

Anton Tarazi

Mr. Ippolito

AP Biology D even

10/24/18

Yin, Steph. “Why Southeast Asia and Australia's Coral Reefs Became So Rich in Species.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/science/coral-reef-biodiversity.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites.

In Steph Yin’s New York Times article “Why Southeast Asia and Australia's Coral Reefs Became So Rich in Species”, he discusses the causes of the extreme biodiversity in the Central-Indo Pacific tropical seas. The coral reefs of Southeast Asia and Australia have more biodiversity than any other marine region on Earth, and the reason for this, as Yin explains, is the ancestors of the current creatures that migrated from the Tethys Sea. The Tethys Sea was an ocean during the Mesozoic Era (time of the dinosaurs) that was in the region that is now the East Atlantic. Yin cites a study done by Elizabeth Miller of the University of Arizona that used computer models and data to conclude that the reason for the high biodiversity of the Central-Indo Pacific is “largely because so many old lineages have settled there.” As the tectonic plates shifted eons ago, many different species migrated from the Tethys Sea to the Central-Indo Pacific, shifting the hot spot of marine life. Yin discusses how the reason for the biodiversity of the region is millions of years of fish and coral living there and evolving, yet all this could be destroyed within decades by human activities. He concludes the article with a call to action to protect the biodiversity of the earth.

The topic that Yin discusses in his article is indirectly connected to our society. While the biodiversity of Southeast Asia and Australia’s Coral Reefs certainly does not directly affect our daily lives, the biodiversity of our planet’s ecosystems has an impact on everyone. As Yin states, more than 500 million people depend on coral reefs for food, income, and coastal protection. The health of these reefs is directly related to our wellbeing as a species. If these precious reefs were to collapse due to human activities such as overfishing and pollution, the loss of biodiversity would have catastrophic impacts on the rest of the planet. That is why as humans, it is so important for us to recognize and learn about all the beauty in nature, so we can understand its importance and how to protect it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Yin’s article. He did a good job of painting a picture of the Central-Indo Pacific and all the different types of fish you would see there, so much more biodiversity than even places like the Carribean. The article is written in simple, unscientific language, with explanations offered for scientific terms such as the Tethys Sea, so it was a clean, easy read. Yin explained how the biodiversity of the region stems from its prehistoric ancestors, but he does not say why this is the case. I felt that a brief discussion about how biodiversity rises over time was missing from his article. If Yin were to include a sentence or two about this, I believe the article would be complete and be very strong because the rest of it was well-written.