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12 - Coral reefs and atolls
from Part III - Coastal Systems
Summary
Synopsis
Coral polyps are simple animals that form large colonies with rich varieties of forms and adaptation to differences in wave energy levels, light and other environmental conditions. Modern coral reefs contain a wide variety of hard and soft corals, but it is the fixing of calcium carbonate by the sceleractian corals to form a hard external skeleton that provides the basis for reef development as the coral structures grow over decades and centuries and as the break-down of corals, coralline algae and other organisms that live in and on the reef supplies sediments to back reef and lagoon areas. Hard corals that grow fast enough to fix large amounts of calcium carbonate are found primarily in warm, tropical waters and exist in a symbiotic relationship with single-cell algae which remove waste and provide a large proportion of the nutrients that the corals need. They also give the corals their distinctive colour.
Coral growth is most rapid close to the surface where there is circulation of food by waves and currents and light for the symbiotic algae. Living corals reefs have a characteristic zonation that reflects the adaptation of individual species to particular levels of light, wave energy and food sources. The topography of the reef in a cross-section from the land oceanward can be divided into three zones: the reef flat which is a shallow area sheltered from direct wave action and an area of sediment accumulation; the reef crest is the shallowest part of the reef and is subject to high wave action and frequent damage to coral colonies; the forereef extends seaward into increasing water depths and decreasing light and wave energy with rapid coral growth in the portion above 20 m and a wide diversity of species.
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- Introduction to Coastal Processes and Geomorphology , pp. 369 - 395Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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