Posts Tagged ‘coral’
Rainforests of the Deep
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Coral reefs are the largest living structures on earth, and provide the backbone for some of the planet’s most spectacular ecosystems. Like underwater forests, coral reefs provide a nurturing habitat for an astonishing variety of marine life. In fact, despite only covering a tiny portion of the ocean’s surface area, coral reefs are home to a quarter of all the species that live in the ocean!
For this reason, coral reefs are sometimes referred to as the rainforests of the sea.
In addition to sheltering so many of the ocean’s creatures, coral reefs are also visually stunning. Filled with colour, shape and texture, they resemble nothing so much as an underwater fairyland. Naturally, the backbone of a coral reef is coral.
A coral reef is composed of “living stone,” made up of thousands upon of thousands of individual coral organisms, called polyps. Coral polyps are small, soft-bodied creatures that create limestone skeletons for themselves using calcium and carbon dioxide from ocean water. (more…)
Tags: coral, Ocean, rainforest
Posted in Environment | 1 Comment »