Life and Death Of Coral ReefsCharles Birkeland Living coral is a thin veneer, measured in millimeters. Yet this thin film of living tissue has shaped the face of the Earth by creating limestone structures sometimes over 1,300 m thick from the surface down to its base on volcanic rock (Enewetak Atoll), or over 2,000 km long (Great Barrier Reef). About half the world's coastlines are in the tropics and about a third of the tropical coastlines are made of coral reef. Archipelagoes of hundreds of atolls such as the Marshalls, the Maldives, the Tuamotus, and most of the Carolines and Kiribati have been fonned by coral. In addition to enlarging high islands (such as the entire northern end of Guam) and extending and protecting coastlines, ancient biogenic reefs have fonned even larger areas on the present continents. Shallow living coral 2 reefs are estimated to presently cover over 600,000 km (Smith, 1978). Coral reefs are dynamic systems, producing limestone at the rate of 400-2,000 tons per hectare per year (Chave et aI. , 1972). The Great Barrier Reef dominates 2 230,000 km and has grown to this size in a geologically brief period of a few million years. Coral reefs influence the chemical balance of the world's oceans. Roughly half the calcium that enters the sea each year around the world, from the north to south poles, is taken up and temporarily bound into coral reefs (Smith, 1978). |
Contents
III | 1 |
IV | 2 |
V | 6 |
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IX | 16 |
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Common terms and phrases
abundance Acanthaster planci Acropora algae algal animals areas Atlantic atolls Barrier Reef benthic bioerosion biomass biota Birkeland bleaching calcification carbon Caribbean changes Chapter CO₂ coastal colonies coral bleaching coral cover coral reefs coral species coral-reef communities coral-reef ecosystems coralline coralline algae corallivores damage damselfish densities Diadema antillarum disease diversity dominated ecological ecosystems environmental erosion example excess production extinction factors fisheries gastropods genera Glynn grazing habitats herbivorous herbivorous fishes human increased indirect effects interactions invertebrates Islands lagoon larvae limestones limited live coral major marine mass mortality metabolism nutrient input occur ocean organisms outbreaks pathogens patterns photosynthetic planulae polyps population Porites potential predation prey primary production processes rates recruitment reef communities reef corals reef fishes reef system regions relatively reproduction result sea level sea urchins seagrass seastar seawater sediment shallow spawning sponges studies surface symbiosis symbiotic taxa temperature tissue tropical upwelling zooxanthellae
Popular passages
Page 464 - RH (1973). Distribution of coral reefs in the Pearl Islands (Gulf of Panama) in relation to thermal conditions.
Page 477 - Johannes, RE, SL Coles, and NT Kuenzel. 1970. The role of zooplankton in the nutrition of some scleractinian corals.
Page 479 - LD, 1982. Isotopic paleoceanography of the Caribbean and East Pacific: Role of Panama uplift in Late Neogene time. Science 217, 350-353.