Importanta recifurilor de corali

Buna ziua
Ma numesc Andreea Mara Grigorescu si sunt eleva in clasa a 5-a D in cadrul ICHB.
In cadrul acestui proiect vreau sa vorbesc despre importanta unuia dintre cele mai
delicate ecosisteme ale planetei si anume reciful de corai.
Mai intai sa ne lamurim: Ce anume sunt coralii ?
Inițial, coralii au fost clasificați drept plante. Culorile si modelele lor delicate au
inspirat compararea recifului cu o gradina in care coralii sunt flori. Însă
aceasta analogie este falsa. Coralii sunt de fapt mici animale nevertebrate marine
apartinand unui grup mare de animale colorate si fascinante numite Cnidaria.
Ei se impart in doua mari grupe:
- coralii de foc (care se numesc asa din cauza senzatei de arsura care o lasa
pe piele daca il atingi)
- si coralii adevarati – care pot avea corpul tare sau moale.

Coralii sunt animale nevertebrate aparținând unui

grup mare de animale colorate și fascinante
numite Cnidaria. Alte animale din acest grup pe
care le-ați putut vedea în bazinele de stâncă sau
pe plajă includ pește de jeleu și anemone de
mare. Deși Cnidarienii prezintă o mare varietate
de culori, forme și dimensiuni, toate au aceleași
caracteristici distinctive; un stomac simplu cu o
singură deschidere a gurii înconjurat de tentacule
înțepătoare. Fiecare animal coralic se numește
polip, iar majoritatea trăiesc în grupuri de la sute
până la mii de polipi identici genetic care
formează o „colonie”. Colonia este formată dintr-
un proces numit înmugurire, care este în cazul în
care polipul original crește literalmente copii ale
sale. Coralii sunt clasificați în general drept „coral
dur” sau „coral moale”. Există în jur de 800 de
specii de corali tari, cunoscute și sub numele de
corali „clădirea recifului”. Coralii moi, care includ
fanii mărilor, pene de mare și bici de mare, nu au
scheletul calcaros asemănător cu cel al celorlalte,
în schimb cresc miezuri asemănătoare lemnului
pentru susținere și șorici cărnoși pentru protecție.
Coralii moi trăiesc, de asemenea, în colonii, care
seamănă adesea cu plante sau copaci viu colorați
și sunt ușor de remarcat decât coralii duri,
deoarece polipii lor au tentacule care apar în
numere de 8 și au un aspect distinctiv de pene.
Coralii moi se găsesc în oceane de la ecuator
până la polul nord și sud, în general în peșteri sau
terasă. Aici, ei se agăță pentru a capta mâncarea
care plutește prin curenții care sunt de obicei tipici
acestor locuri.

Câte specii de corali exista ?

Cum se formează recifurile ?

De ce sunt recifurile importante ?

https://www.aza.org/from-the-desk-of-dan-ashe/posts/endangered-species-profile-coral-and-coral-
reefs

https://www.icriforum.org/about-coral-reefs/what-are-corals

https://www.erd.ro/Marea_Bariera_de_Corali

What are corals?

 Anatomy of a polyp (Source: NOAA)

Corals are invertebrate animals belonging to a large group of colourful and fascinating animals
called Cnidaria. Other animals in this group that you may have seen in rock pools or on the beach
include jelly fish and sea anemones. Although Cnidarians exhibit a wide variety of colours, shapes
and sizes, they all share the same distinguishing characteristics; a simple stomach with a single
mouth opening surrounded by stinging tentacles. Each individual coral animal is called a polyp, and
most live in groups of hundreds to thousands of genetically identical polyps that form a 'colony'. The
colony is formed by a process called budding, which is where the original polyp literally grows copies
of itself.
Coral are generally classified as either "hard coral" or "soft coral". There are around 800 known
species of hard coral, also known as the 'reef building' corals. Soft corals, which include seas fans,
sea feathers and sea whips, don't have the rock-like calcareous skeleton like the others, instead they
grow wood-like cores for support and fleshy rinds for protection. Soft corals also live in colonies, that
often resemble brightly coloured plants or trees, and are easy to tell apart from hard corals as their
polyps have tentacles that occur in numerals of 8, and have a distinctive feathery appearance. Soft
corals are found in oceans from the equator to the north and south poles, generally in caves or
ledges. Here, they hang down in order to capture food floating by in the currents that are usually
typical of these places.
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What are coral reefs?

Hard corals extract abundant calcium from surrounding seawater and use this to create a hardened
structure for protection and growth. Coral reefs are therefore created by millions of tiny polyps
forming large carbonate structures, and are the basis of a framework and home for hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of other species. Coral reefs are the largest living structure on the planet,
and the only living structure to be visible from space.
As we currently know them, coral reefs have evolved on earth over the past 200 to 300 million years,
and over this evolutionary history, perhaps the most unique feature of corals is the highly evolved
form of symbiosis. Coral polyps have developed this relationship with tiny single-celled plants,
known as zooxanthellae. Inside the tissues of each coral polyp live these microscopic, single-celled
algae, sharing space, gas exchange and nutrients to survive.
This symbiosis between plant and animal also contributes to the brilliant colors of coral that can be
seen while diving on a reef. It is the importance of light that drives corals to compete for space on
the sea floor, and so constantly pushes the limits of their physiological tolerances in a competitive
environment among so many different species. However, it also makes corals highly susceptible to
environmental stress.
Coral reefs are part of a larger ecosystem that also includes mangroves and seagrass beds.
Mangroves are salt tolerant trees with submerged roots that provide nursery and breeding grounds
for marine life, that then migrate to the reef. Mangroves also trap and produce nutrients for food,
stabilise the shoreline, protect the coastal zone from storms, and help filter land based pollutants
from run off. Seagrasses are flowering marine plants that are a key primary producer in the food
web. They provide food and habitat for turtles, seahorses, manatees, fish and foraging sea life such
as urchins and sea cucumbers, and are also a nursery for many juvenile species of sea animals.
Seagrass beds are like fields that sit in shallow waters off the beach, filtering sediments out of the
water, releasing oxygen and stabilising the bottom.
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How do corals eat?

While most of a corals diet is obtained from zooxanthellae, they can also 'fish' for food too. During
feeding a coral polyp will extend its tentacles out from its body and wave them in the water current
where they encounter small fish, plankton or other food particles. The surface of each tentacle has
thousands of stinging cells called cnidoblasts, and when small prey floats or swims past, the
tentacles fire these stinging cells, stunning or killing the prey before passing it to the mouth.
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How do they reproduce?

Many coral species reproduce once or twice each year. Most coral species spawn by releasing eggs
and sperm into the water, but the period of spawning varies from one species to another. When an
egg and a sperm meet they form a larva known as a planula. The baby coral looks like a little tiny
jellyfish and floats around near the surface at first, and then in the water column until it finds a
suitable space to call home - usually a hard surface to attach to. Other limited distribution coral
species are brooders. This is where only male gametes are released into the water, then taken in by
female coral animals containing egg cells. Fertilization occurs inside the female coral, and a small
planula develops inside it. This planula is released through the mouth of the female coral and drifts
or crawls away to settle elsewhere and grow into a new colony.
Coral spawning happens at the same time each year and appears to be related to the lunar cycle.
This allows scientists and divers the opportunity to observe this magnificent phenomenon, along with
all the fish and predators that come to feed on them.
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How fast do they grow?

Even in ideal conditions, these reef building corals are slow growing. They exhibit a wide range of
shapes. For instance, branching corals have primary and secondary branches. Sub-massive corals
look like fingers or clumps of cigars and have no secondary branches. Table corals form table-like
structures and often have fused branches. Elkhorn coral has large, flattened branches. Foliose
corals have broad plate-like portions rising in whorl-like patterns. Encrusting corals grow as a thin
layer against a substrate. Massive corals are ball-shaped or boulder-like and may be as small as an
egg or as large as a house. Mushroom corals resemble the unattached tops of mushrooms. In
general, massive corals tend to grow slowly, increasing in size from 0.5 cm to 2 cm per year.
However, under favorable conditions (high light exposure, consistent temperature, moderate wave
action), some species can grow as much as 4.5 cm per year. In contrast to the massive species,
branching colonies tend to grow much faster, and under favorable conditions, these colonies can
grow vertically by as much as 10 cm per year.
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Where are they found?

Coral reefs are found throughout the oceans, from deep, cold waters to shallow, tropical waters.
Temperate and tropical reefs however are formed only in a zone extending at most from 30°N to
30°S of the equator; the reef-building corals prefering to grow at depths shallower than 30 m (100 ft),
or where the temperature range is between 16-32oc, and light levels are high.

Distribution of coral reefs -

Source: NOAA's National Ocean Service, Education Division

Based on current estimates, shallow water coral reefs occupy somewhere between 284,000 and
512,000 km2 of the planet (cold-water (deep) coral reefs occupy even more area). If all the world's
shallow water coral reefs were crammed together, the space would equal somewhere between an
area of land ranging from the country of Ecuador (the low estimate) to Spain (the higher estimate).
This area-about 198 thousand square miles in an ocean of 140 million square miles-represents less
than 0.015 percent of the ocean. Yet coral reefs harbor more than one quarter of the ocean's
biodiversity. That's an amazing statistic when you think about it: no other ecosystem occupies such a
limited area with more life forms.
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What does a coral reef look like?

 Darwin's three stages of atoll formation
(source: NOAA)

It was Charles Darwin who originally classified coral reefs as to their structure and morphology, and
described them as follows:
 Fringing reefs lie near emergent land. They are fairly shallow, narrow and recently formed.
They can be separated form the coast by a navigable channel (which is sometimes incorrectly
termed a "lagoon").
 Barrier reefs are broader and lie farther away from the coast. They are separated from the
coast by a stretch of water which can be up to several miles wide and several tens of metres deep.
Sandy islands covered with a characteristic pattern of vegetation have sometimes formed on top of a
barrier reef. The coastline of these islands is broken by passes, which have occupied the beds of
former rivers.
 Atolls are large, ring-shaped reefs lying off the coast, with a lagoon in their middle. The
emergent part of the reef is often covered with accumulated sediments and the most characteristic
vegetation growing on these reefs consists of coconut trees. Atolls develop near the sea surface on
underwater islands or on islands that sink, or subside.

Imagine clasificarea coralilor

https://seahorserun.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/coral-names/

ppt – clasificare corali

https://slideplayer.com/slide/4629755/