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    Coral Reef

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    yahia222000
    Coral reefs are underwater habitats formed from coral polyps that provide shelter for many ocean animals. Coral reefs face threats from warming oceans, pollution, and human activities like dredging and coral collection that can damage these ecosystems.

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    Coral Reef

    Uploaded by

    yahia222000
    8 views2 pages
    Coral reefs are underwater habitats formed from coral polyps that provide shelter for many ocean animals. Coral reefs face threats from warming oceans, pollution, and human activities like dredging and coral collection that can damage these ecosystems.

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    Coral_Reef (2)

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    Coral reefs are underwater habitats formed from coral polyps that provide shelter for many ocean animals. Coral reefs face threats from warming oceans, pollution, and human activities like dredging and coral collection that can damage these ecosystems.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    8 views2 pages

    Coral Reef

    Uploaded by

    yahia222000
    Coral reefs are underwater habitats formed from coral polyps that provide shelter for many ocean animals. Coral reefs face threats from warming oceans, pollution, and human activities like dredging and coral collection that can damage these ecosystems.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Coral Reef – The Underwater Rainforests

    Figure 1. Coral Reef

    Coral reefs are warm, clear, shallow ocean habitats that are rich in life. The reef's massive
    structure is formed from coral polyps, tiny animals that live in colonies; when coral polyps die,
    they leave behind a hard, stony, branching structure made of limestone.
    The coral provides shelter for many animals such as fish, sponges, jelly fish, sea stars, anemones,
    crustaceans, turtles, sea snakes, snails and molluscs.
    Types of corals:

    Type of corals Definition Reference

    Table A

    Famous coral reefs and reef areas of the world include:


    The Great Barrier Reef - largest coral reef system in the world, Queensland, Australia;

    The Belize Barrier Reef - second largest in the world, stretching from southern Quintana Roo,
    Mexico and all along the coast of Belize down to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

    The New Caledonia Barrier Reef - second longest double barrier reef in the world, with a length of
    about 1500km.

    The Andros, Bahamas Barrier Reef - third largest in the world, following along the east coast of
    Andros Island, Bahamas between Andros and Nassau.

    The Red Sea Coral Reef - located off the coast of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

    Pulley Ridge - deepest photosynthetic coral reef, Florida

    Many of the numerous reefs found scattered over the Maldives

    1
    Some facts about coral reefs:

    Coral reefs are found both in temperate and tropical waters.


    Tropical corals do not grow at depths of over 50 m.
    Tropical corals do not exist in waters below 18°C.
    When coral reefs become heat-exposed they die, leaving the white dead coral, also
    known as bleaching.
    When the temperature climbs, coral reefs might cool off by producing their own clouds.

    Coral Diseases:

    Bleaching

    Black-Band disease

    White-Band disease

    White Plague

    Coral Reefs in Danger:

    Aside from the continuous warming of ocean waters, water pollution (which is generally
    caused by pollutants from sewage and agricultural runoff), dredging off the coast,
    careless collecting of coral specimens and sedimentation are some of the threats to
    these underwater rainforests. In fact, according to an article in New Scientist issued on
    the 10th of July 2008, more than "one quarter of reef-building coral species already face
    extinction.”

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