A Poem I dedicate to corals.

Oh, corals how nice you maybe
Oh corals, deep down in the sea
Your beauty so attractive, it makes me admire
You are helpful in ways, you support life and birth
Helpful in ways to make medicine that makes us be cured from diseases

You are beautiful like a mirage,
protecting fish and marine animals
like an armor protecting all the animals

A conversation between a six year old child with his older sister.

6 year old boy: Sister, what is corals?
Sister: Corals are living things which could form a colony and slowly become a coral reef.
6 year old boy: I heard that all corals are beautiful.
Sister: True, however, it depends on the way you look at it.
6 year old boy: Sister, are corals useful to us?
Sister: Well, yes. They are useful to us, they are used to make medicine to cure us from some diseases or illness.
6 year old boy: Sister, is it possible that corals could cure us from terminal diseases?
Sister: Well, I am not very sure but I do believe that scientist may make use of corals to create a medicine which could cure us form terminal diseases.
6 year old boy: Ok now , Sister,I have to go to school now. Bye Bye
Sister: Bye Bye

FAQ about Corals

Question: Why do we have to save corals?
Answer: To save the animals living near or with the corals and stop the destruction of life which could cause an imbalance to the ecosysytem.

Question: How do we save Corals?
Answer: Refer to the post First 17 ways to save the corals

Question: What could cause the destruction of corals?
Answer: Refer to Threats to coral reefs

Question: How does saving coral reefs benefit us?
Answer: It could cut down the cost of medicine and maybe cures to terminal diseases.

Question: What if we still want to know more about corals?
Answer: We will still or might be updating more information about corals after the deadline of this blogging project so please leave comments or question if you want to know more.

Question: Does corals support life to all the marine animals living in the sea?
Answer: Yes, coral does support life to all the marine animals living in the sea indirectly or directly.

If there is anymore enquires, please leave commments in this blog and we will try to answer them.

Animals that dwells within the corals

Coral reefs are home to approximately one million species of amazing animals and plants. Since we couldn't possibly list all of them, here is a list of just a few animals that can be found living in and around the reef

• Sea Turtles

Sea turtles which too are depending on corals to survive due to the decrease of corals and hunting.

• Clown Fish

Clown Fish aka Nemo lives and dwells amoung corals. They live in a type of coral which stings other sea animals when it comes in contact with it which means it helps the Clown Fish hide or injure the predator without risking the Clown Fish's life.

• Dugongs

Large population of dugongs live within the Great Barrier Reef. Dugongs are highly-endangered species of mammals. Dugongs are very sensetive to the temperature of the water that they are living within and could only utilize freshwater at a certain temperature. Dugongs which are usually hunted for its meat and oil now mostly cohabitats or lives within the Great Barrier Reef.

Nowadays, more and more animals die due to loss of habitat due to our moves and actions we make. Give out a helping hand and stop the destruction of coral reefs now.

http://www.columbia.edu/~rde2104/coralreefwebpage/reefanimals.html

More Information and Facts about Corals!!

-Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone–like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals. The group includes the important reef builders that are found in tropical oceans, which secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.
-A coral "head", commonly perceived to be a single organism, is formed from thousands of individual but genetically identical polyps, each polyp only a few millimeters in diameter.
-Over thousands of generations, the polyps lay down a skeleton that is characteristic of their species. Then a head of coral grows by asexual reproduction of the individual polyps.
-Corals also breed sexually by spawning, with corals of the same species releasing gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon eventhough corals can catch plankton using stinging cells on their tentacles, they obtain most of their nutrients from symbiotic unicellular algae called zooxanthellae.
-Consequently, most corals depend on sunlight and they grow in clear and shallow water, typically at depths shallower than 60 m.
adapted from ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corals)

Threats to coral reefs

Threats to Coral Reefs
Human Contact
Touching coral reefs even slightly, can harm them.If ships or boats dropped anchors on them it can cause severe damage to these fragile ecosystems. Frequent human contact can also kills the reefs over time.
Runoff Water
slits from eroded soil in runoff water can block sunlight. Without this sunlight, photosynthesis cannot ccur and the reefs gradually die.
Sewage
Untreated or improperly treated sewage promotes the growth of algae, which cause harms to the coral reefs
Cyanide Fishing
Some fishermen stun fishes by squirting cyanide, a very toxic poison, into reef areas where fishes seek refuge. The poison does not kill, but disorients the fishes in the coral where they hide. The fisherman then rip apart the reefs with crowbars to capture the fishes. In addition, cyanide kills coral polyps , the symbiotic algae and other small organisms necessary for healthy reefs. Cyanide fishing is most common in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Destructive fishing practices
These include cyanide fishing, blast or dynamite fishing, bottom trawling, and muro-ami (banging on the reef with sticks). Bottom-trawling is one of the greatest threats to cold-water coral reefs.
Careless tourism
Careless tourism example: Careless boating, diving, snorkeling and fishing happens around the world, with people touching reefs, collecting corals and dropping anchors on reefs. Some tourist resorts and infrastructure have been also built directly on top of reefs, and some resorts empty their sewage or other wastes directly into water which is surrounded by coral reefs.
Pollution
Urban and industrial waste, sewage, agrochemicals, and oil pollution are poisoning the reefs. These are dumped directly into the ocean or carried by river systems from sources upstream. Some pollutants, such as sewage and runoff from farming, increase the level of nitrogen in the seawater, causing an overgrowth of algae cutting off the coral's sunlight.
Sedimentation
Erosion caused by construction by both along coasts and inland mining, logging, and farming is leading to increased sediment in rivers. This ends up in the ocean, where it can 'smother' corals by depriving them of the light they need to survive. The destruction of mangrove forests, which normally trap large amounts of sediment, is exacerbating the problem.
Coral mining
Live corals are removed from reefs for use as bricks, road-fill, or cement for new buildings. Corals are also sold as souvenirs to tourists and to exporters who don't know or don't care about the longer term damage done, and harvested for the live rock trade.
Climate change
Corals cannot survive if the water temperature where they live in is not suitable or is too high for them to live in. Global warming has already led to increased levels of coral bleaching, and this is predicted to increase in frequency and severity in the coming decades.

The Global Warming Affecting heat!!!!!

Factors of Global Warming harming the coral reef. Part 1
Increasing global temperature is expected to cause sea level to rise, an increase in the intensity of extreme weather events, and significant changes to the amount and pattern of precipitation.

Other expected effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, modifications of trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

-If the sea level rises, there would cause flooding thus causing some parts of coral reefs to be washed or wiped out by the currents.

-Glacier retreat could cause some parts the oceans which is near the Northen and Southern Poles to become higher and if the water temperature decreases, some corals cohabitating the area would die due to the decrease in temperature.

-Global warming also causes rise to water temperature which some corals might not be able to adapt and thus will die.

-Some diseases which will cause harm to the corals will result it to die.

-If trade routes are changed, oil spills may occur thus if the trade route is changed where coral reefs cohabitat, the oil spills may or will result to the death of the corals.

Factors of Global Warming harming the coral reefs. Part 2


Global Warming could dealt to large causualties to the corals but not only that, it could also affect us and marine life.



The affect of Global Warming could result to what mentioned in the Part 1 Of Global Warming Affecting heat



Now, time for some economy, social and common sensical lesson.



1.Corals= Medicine= Money

Corals have been used as medicines to cure common flu and illnesses by many doctors.

So If there is an decrease to the corals meaning decrease to the amount of medicine. And if amount of medicine reduce, meaning more expensive which also means more $/money is spent buying medicine.

Simpler concept:

Coral = Medicine = Money/$

- = - = +

- Corals= - Medicine = + Money/$



2. Corals= Medicine=Money

Corals have been used in treatments by doctors to cure AIDs, SARS, cancer and even Hepetitas B which are serious killing diseases. Even if it does not cure, who knows, maybe new species of the corals could cure this diseases. If all these species of corals are wiped out and could cure those diseases, meaning we are the cause of our own demise.

Simpler concept:

Coral( gone)= 0 cure/ no cure ( note. medicine can also be made from other things but it means only lesser , when i mean lesser, i mean much lesser, than usual )

3. Coral Reefs= Tourist Attraction = Money

Now , I shall talk more about logic, economy and some buisness. As many tourists from other countries come to visit some beautiful coral reefs, they tend to choose areas that are close to the coral reefs and dive and where it could also endanger their lives. Corals are actually something that is rocky but are also fragile. When one step from a human foot lands on the corals, it would just snap off. So next time, maybe airlines services, tourists centres or diving shop could take action to let tourist dive at a safe distance away from coral reefs. If not, to all tourist out there, take action on your own by asking diving shops to bring you to somewhere in the vast ocean which is in a safe distance for the coral reefs and yourself to take picture at.

Let's say if no one takes action for the life of the corals, coral reefs would be dead one day, thus no more tourist attraction, thus no more money is spent to look at coral reefs( which are gone) ever again.

Coral Facts

-The world's first coral reefs occurred about 500 million years ago, and the first close relatives of the modern corals developed in southern Europe at about 230 million years ago.
-The Great Barrier Reef is relatively young at just 500,000 years old.
-The current reef's structure is much younger at less than around 8,000 years old.
-Most modern reefs are formed on hard surfaces in the ocean, such as a base of an old reef that died during a period when sea level was lower, or the edge of a rocky island.
-Some coral reefs form in the deep ocean and are called atolls.
-Atoll starts life as a fringing reef, then becomes more of a ring growing on the shrinking land-mass, until the land disappears and just the coral circle remains.
-In some other cases, the coral growth is unable to keep pace with the sinking island, and sunken dead reefs have also been found.
-It was until the mid-18th century that corals were recognized as animals, not plants as what people used to thought.

the corals size:
-The corals size are individual polyps range from 3 - 56 mm in diameter or height; while colony size varies from 75 mm -1500 mm (1.5 m) in width, height or in length.
-Coral polyps: Coral reefs consist of hundreds and thousands of soft-bodied, invertebrate animals, which have no backbone which are known as coral polyps.
-The individual polyp is radially symmetrical and has a tubular body with tentacles surrounding the mouth at the upper end.
-Each polyp’s body wall consists of two layers of cells, an outer layer called the ectoderm and an inner endoderm layer.
-A gelatinous material called mesogloea is found in between these two layers.
hard corals:
-Hard corals build reefs by growing atop the stony skeletons of previous coral colonies.
-It consist of limestone cases made by coral polyps extracting calcium from seawater.
-These limestone cases form a so-called house for the coral polyp, consisting of a floor, outer walls and a number of internal partitions.
-Inside corals’ clear outer tissues live microscopic algae, which transform sunlight into sugars through photosynthesis.
-The hosts help themselves to some of the sugars and gain some colour through photosynthsis.
-Hard corals form the backbone of the reef. Corals are remarkable creatures, they can form vast colonies and habitats.
reproduction of corals:
-Corals reproduce in two ways- asexually and sexually.
-Some corals divide to form new individuals, known as asexual reproduction.
-Sexual reproduction takes place as mass spawning, where polyps release millions of eggs and sperm.
-Polyps are either male or female or both male and female.
-After the eggs and sperm are released, they float to the surface.
-The fertilised eggs that escape predation by other animals hatch into larvae and drift with the plankton.
-The tiny percent that survive and settle on the reef then begin new coral colonies.

Information Sources: Australian Marine Life, by G.J.EdgarSteve Parish: Amazing Facts about Australian Marine Life Encyclopedia Britannica and http://www.reef.crc.org.au/

the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef. Located 60 meters below the sea's surface off the eastern coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef expands over an area greater than 23000 square kilometers. It is also one of the world's most complex and diverse ecosystems.


source : http://animals.about.com/cs/habitats1/a/blwl071403.htm

Facts about corals

-Corals belong to the Phylum Cnidaria. Cnidaria means that they are invertebrates which means they do not have bones and all have specialized cells called nematocysts that help them capture prey and defend themselves and it exhibit radial symmetry
the passing water.
-Corals belong to the Class Anthozoa - a subgroup of the Phylum Cnidaria. Members of this group of animals have flower-like structures called polyps. They have a simple body plan in which food and air passes in and out of a stomach-like sac called gastrovascular cavity through a single opening which are usually belonging on to two major phyla, the Cnidaria and the Platyhelminthes.
-Corals typically form colonies consisting of many individual corals.
-Coral colonies grow from a single founder individual that divides repeatedly. A coral colony consists of a base that attaches coral to a reef, an upper surface that is exposed to light and hundreds of polyps.

source:http://animals.about.com/od/cnidarians/a/tenthingscoral.htm