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Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height.
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. ... When alive, corals are colonies ... which includes the shells of old or dead ...
Some coral species monitored had a mortality rate of 95%, with researchers observing the start of “colony collapse” where the dead skeleton detaches from the reef and turns to rubble.
The name sometimes leads to misunderstandings, as the "live rock" itself is not actually alive, but rather is simply made from the aragonite skeletons of long dead corals, or other calcareous organisms, which in the ocean form the majority of coral reefs.
In the five reefs the team visited, they did see some wild coral alive and well, Lesneski said. Brain or boulder coral seemed to do better, but still had large amounts of death, she said.
South Florida researchers trying to prevent predatory fish from devouring laboratory-grown coral are grasping at biodegradable straws in an effort to restore what some call the rainforest of the sea.
The most common way to tell if a coral is healthy is by looking at its coloration. A dead or unhealthy coral will be bleached, which means they have 40%-50% or more of their pigmentation missing. [7] Some coral diseases take the form of a narrow band of diseased tissue separating the living tissue from the exposed skeleton.
But it’s not too late to intervene.