What is a Coral Reef?
-The most biologically diverse marine eco-systems on earth, rivaled only by the tropical rainforests on land.
-Corals grow over geologic time and have been in existence about 200 million years.
-Corals reached their current level of diversity 50 million years ago.
-The balanced marine environment of the coral reef is due to the interaction of hard and soft corals, sponges, anemones, snails, rays, crabs, lobsters, turtles, dolphins and other marine life.
What is a Coral Reef made up of?
-Thin plates or layers of calcium carbonate secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps.
-Takes years for some corals to grow an inch: they range in size from a pinhead to a foot in length.
-Each polyp excretes a calcereous exo-skeleton and lives in a symbiotic relationship with a host algae, zooxanthellae, that gives the coral its color.
-Zooxanthellae takes in carbon dioxide, process it through photosynthesis, and then gives off oxygen as a by-product that is used by the host polyp.
-Millions of polyps grow on top of the limestone remains of former colonies to create the massive reefs.
-Polyps form the only natural formation visible from outer space.
Different kinds of Corals
There are two kinds of corals. Both are stationary on the ocean bottom
~Hard corals have rigid exoskeletons, or corallites, that protect their soft delicate bodies.
Eg. brain, star, staghorn, elkhorn and pillar corals
~Gorgonians (soft corals) sway with the currents and lack an exoskeleton
Eg. sea fans, sea whips, and sea rods
What do Coral Reefs rely on?
They depend on mangroves and seagrass.
Mangroves: Salt-tolerant trees with submerged roots that are a nursery and breeding ground for birds and most of the marine life that migrates to the reef. Mangroves trap and produce nutrients for food and habitat, stabilize the shoreline, and filter pollutants from the landbase.
Seagrass: Flowering marine plants that are an important part of the food web. They provide foods and habitat for turtles, manatees, many fish, filter-feeding organisms and foraging sealife such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Seagrasses are a nursery for pink shrimp, lobster, snapper and other sealife. They filter the water of sediments, release oxygen and stabilize the bottom.
Coral Reefs are Imporant
~They have intrinsic natural value.
~The economic, tourism, fishing and recreational resources of tropical areas around the world depend upon healthy coral reef ecosystems.
~Barrier coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage.
~The food, tourism revenue, coastal protection and new medications that reefs provide are worth about $375 billion each year.
Credits
http://www.reefrelief.org/coral_reef_body.shtml
--Sherry--
blogged with love by Chocolatiers @ 11:17 PM
