Coral

Reefs and
Estuaries
France Michael B. Dayrit
IV - Photon
 CORAL
REEFS
Source : Grolier International Encyclopedia, “coral reefs”
 Coral Reefs
A coral reef is a wave-resistant underwater point built of remains
of coral, coral sands, and solid limestone at or slightly below sea
level. They are aragonite structures produced by living animal
colonies, found in marine waters containing few nutrients. In most
reefs, stony corals predominant. Stony corals are built from
colonial polyps that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate.
Reefs grow best in shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters. The
accumulation of skeletal material, broken and piled up by wave
action and bioeroders, produces formation that supports the living
corals and a great variety of other animal and plant life. Coral
reefs have three forms: fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and
atolls. Often called “rainforests of the sea”, coral reefs form some
of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on earth.
 How Reefs Form
Most coral reefs were formed after the last glacial
period when melting ice caused the sea level to rise and
flood the continental shelves. This means that most coral
reefs are less than 10,000 years old. Reefs that didn't keep
pace could become drowned reefs, covered by so much
water that there was insufficient light for further survival.
Coral reefs are also found in the deep sea away from
the continental shelves, around oceanic islands and
as atolls. The vast majority of these ocean coral islands are
volcanic in origin. The few exceptions have tectonic origins
where plate movements have lifted the deep ocean floor
on the surface.
 Climate Change
Any rise in the sea level due to climate change would
effectively ask coral to grow faster to keep up. Also, water
temperature changes can be very disturbing to the coral. High
seas surface temperature (SSTs) coupled with high irradiance
(light intensity), triggers the loss of zooxanthellae, a symbiotic
algae, and its dinoflagellate pigmentation in corals causing
coral bleaching. Reefs can often recover from bleaching if they
are healthy to begin with and water temperatures cool.
Warming may also be the basis of a new emerging problem:
increasing coral diseases. Warming, thought to be the main
cause of coral bleaching, weakens corals. In their weakened
state, coral is much more prone to diseases. If global
temperatures increase by 2 °C, coral may not be able to adapt
quickly enough physiologically or genetically.
 ESTUARY

Source: Grolier International Encyclopedia, “estuary”. Harold B. Wanless

 Estuary
Estuaries are drowned coastal river valleys in which fresh
water and sea water mix. Drowning occurs as a result of
either a worldwide rise in sea level or subsidence of the
land. They are also the habitats of shell fish that live in
brackish or moderately salt water. In the inner portions of
estuarine embayments, water circulation is stratified, with
less dense river water flowing out over a wedge of denser
sea water. Some biologists and oceanographers restrict the
term estuary to that portion of an embayment in which such
circulation takes place.
• Sediments in an estuary have both a river
and an ocean source. Sand carried into an
estuary by tidal currents is moved farther
inward by currents in the saline wedge.
Coarser, riverborne sediments drop out
near the head of the estuary as current
velocities decrease, while finer river
sediments accumulates in the upper riches
of estuaries.