What are Corals Reefs anyway??

What are Corals Reefs?
-Coral reefs are actually aragonite which are carbonate mineral produced by living organisms, in marine waters with little or no nutrients in the water.

What if there are high nutrition levels in the marine water?
-High nutrient levels such as those found in runoff from agricultural areas can harm the reef by encouraging the growth of algae, thus contributing to crowding.

Accumulation of Skeletal Materials
-In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate.
-The accumulation of skeletal material are broken and piled up by wave action and bioeroders produces a massive calcareous formation that supports the living corals and a great variety of other animal and plant life.

What are bioeroders?
-Bioeroders are erosions caused by hard ocean materials by living organisms by a number of mechanisms which can be caused by mollusks, polychaete worms, phoronids, sponges, crustaceans, echinoids, and fishes.
-It can occur on coastlines, on coral reefs, and on ships.
-Mechanisms of bioerosion include biotic boring, drilling, rasping, and scraping.


Where are corals specifically found.
-Corals are found both in temperate and tropical waters. Corals inhabit a wide range of habitats and regions.
-Shallow-water reefs are formed only in a zone extending at most from 30°N to 30°S of the equator.
-Tropical corals do not grow at depths of over 30 m (100 ft) and temperature has less of an affect on distribution of tropical corals but it is usually or generally accepted that they do not exist in water below 18 degrees celcius.
-Deep water corals can exist at greater depths and colder temperatures.
-Some of the solitary hard coral species are found in temperate and even in polar waters and live occur as far as 6000 meters below the surface of the water.

Coral reefs can take a variety of forms, defined in following:
-Fringing reef– a reef that is directly attached to a shore or borders it with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
-Barrier reef – a reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon.
-Patch reef – an isolated, often circular reef, usually within a lagoon or embayment.
-Apron reef – a short reef resembling a fringing reef, but more sloped; extending out and downward from a point or peninsular shore.
-Bank reef – a linear or semi-circular in outline, larger than a patch reef.
-Ribbon reef – a long, narrow, somewhat winding reef, usually associated with an atoll lagoon.
-Atoll reef – a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef extending all the way around a lagoon without a central island
-Table reef – an isolated reef, approaching an atoll type, but without a lagoon.


These are what some people thinks:

How does the coral reefs benefit us?

-They are part of a food chain involving the fishes and us, if they are wiped out or endangered, there would be lesser or no more food for the fishes and meaning lesser for us humans.
-Despite having lesser food, there would also be lesser species of corals for us to enjoy, admire or to research on.
-What if some of the corals have medicinal affects that might cure cancer or AIDs or maybe some corals known for their medicinal affects to cure people from fever or common flu, there would be lesser medicine and loss of beneficial cure.

-Coral reefs form natural barriers that protect nearby shorelines from the eroding forces of the sea, thereby protecting coastal dwellings, agricultural land and beaches. And if there was no coral reefs, parts of Florida would have already be under the ocean.

-Coral Reef is habitat of some species of marine animals and if the coral reefs are totally wiped out, there would be no place for the marine animals to live, even if they were to find one, the marine animals might not be able to adapt and die, become endangered or even on a long base scale , extinct!! So please save the corals!!!

source:wikipedia.org