Conclusion

The purpose of my project is to see if coral in a low energy or high energy beach has more branches of coral. My hypothesis was not supported by the data that I collected. I expected that the high energy beach would have fewer branches of coral. However, it was the lower energy beach that had a smaller number of branches on the elkhorn coral. I expected there to be more branches because of the decreased force of the waves washing against that coral.

The low energy beach is Salt River, lots of boats pass often and inexperienced boaters sometimes hit the reef. Some possible explanations could be damage or pollution from passing boats. Because the water is calmer, boats might be more likely to go there and could damage the coral.The coral in the low energy beach may have so much dead coral because of the pollution from boats passing. And since it's a low energy beach the pollution has nowhere to go which could cause coral bleaching that kills the coral. Judith’s Fancy, on the other hand, has nothing bothering the coral. No boats are coming into the bay. Some possible error in my results could be that the low energy beach was shallower than the high energy beach. Possibly the shallower it is, the warmer it is, which could also cause coral bleaching. My studies could have been more controlled if there was coral that's the same depth and not boats passing by. This information might be important to people who care about marine life. Coral is home to many species of fish and many people make profit off of coral reefs through tourism. Fishing, diving and snorkeling are some of the main businesses that rely on coral reefs. Coral reefs also provide protection from big waves for people’s homes. Further studies could investigate why there is so much dead coral in Salt River.