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A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. [1] Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Coral belongs to the class Anthozoa in the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones and ...
The Amazon Reef (also referred to as the Amazonian Reef) is an extensive coral and sponge reef system, located off the coast of French Guiana and northern Brazil. It is one of the largest reef systems in the world known to exist, with scientists estimating its length to be over 600 miles (970 km) long, and covering over 3,600 square miles ...
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, [1] [2] composed of over 2,900 individual reefs [3] and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi).
Florida's Coral Reef, the only coral reef system in the continental United States and the third-largest barrier reef ecosystem in the world, is a shallow-water reef. This deep-sea one is ...
Canton Island typifies the isolated coral atolls dotting the Pacific Ocean. The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, Being the first part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. during the years 1832 to 1836, was published in 1842 as Charles Darwin's first monograph, and set out his theory of the formation of coral reefs and atolls.
While it covers only 1.6% of the planet's oceanic area, the region has 76% of all known coral species in the world. As a habitat for 52% of Indo-Pacific reef fishes and 37% of the world's reef fishes, it contains the greatest diversity of coral reef fishes in the world [17] More than 3,000 species of bony fish are distributed over more than 90% of the Coral Triangle.
According to UNESCO, the coral reefs in all 29 reef-containing World Heritage sites would cease to exist by the end of this century if human-created processes continue to emit the current level of ...
Huge stretches of coral reef around the world are turning a ghostly white this year amid record warm ocean temperatures. On Monday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ...