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Deep-water coral Paragorgia arborea and a Coryphaenoides fish at a depth of 1,255 m (4,117 ft) on the Davidson Seamount. The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where water temperatures may be as cold as 4 °C (39 °F).
The classification of corals has been discussed for millennia, owing to having similarities to both plants and animals. Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus described the red coral, korallion, in his book on stones, implying it was a mineral, but he described it as a deep-sea plant in his Enquiries on Plants, where he also mentions large stony plants that reveal bright flowers when under water in ...
Conservation status for warm-water reef-building corals was analysed for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. 44% of warm-water coral species facing extinction ...
Deep nutrient-rich water entering coral reefs through isolated events may have significant effects on temperature and nutrient systems. [107] [108] This water movement disrupts the relatively stable thermocline that usually exists between warm shallow water and deeper colder water. Temperature regimes on coral reefs in the Bahamas and Florida ...
The extreme heat prompted NOAA to add new colors to its coral bleaching warning scale this year. Previously, the scale went from “no stress” to “alert level 2,” an open-ended category that ...
Most corals require oligotrophic water, that is, water that is clear and nutrient-poor. [9] Corals derive nutrients from zooxanthellae symbionts, as well as from plankton and other free-floating particles. [10] Zooxanthellae require a mixture of white and blue light to thrive within the coral, depending on the coral type. [11]
Historically, industrial fishers avoided coral because their nets would get caught on the reefs. In the 1980s, "rock-hopper" trawls attached large tires and rollers to allow the nets to roll over rough surfaces. Fifty-five percent of Alaskan cold-water coral that was damaged by one pass from a bottom trawl had not recovered a year later.
Deep water coral habitats are also threatened by human activities, particularly by indiscriminate trawling. These ecosystems have been little studied, but in the perpetual darkness and cold temperatures, animals grow and mature slowly and there are relatively fewer fish worth catching than in the sunlit waters above.