{"id":56447,"date":"2020-03-02T17:26:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T11:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=56447"},"modified":"2020-03-02T17:26:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T11:56:04","slug":"answered-what-are-the-favourable-conditions-for-formation-of-corals-analyse-the-impact-of-global-warming-on-corals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-what-are-the-favourable-conditions-for-formation-of-corals-analyse-the-impact-of-global-warming-on-corals\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] What are the favourable conditions for formation of corals? Analyse the impact of global warming on corals."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Corals are a kind of calcareous rock,\nchiefly made of the skeletons of minute sea organisms called polyps. Coral\nreefs and atolls are formed due to the accumulation and compaction of the\nskeletons of these lime secreting organisms. They form one of the most diverse\nand productive marine ecosystems on earth housing tens of thousands of marine\nspecies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nFavourable conditions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Sunlight: <\/strong>Corals need to grow in shallow water where sunlight can\nreach them. Corals depend on the zooxanthellae<\/em> (algae)\nthat grow inside of them for oxygen and other things and since these algae need sunlight to survive, corals also need\nsunlight to survive. Corals rarely develop in water deeper than 50 meters.<\/li>
  2. Clear water: <\/strong>Corals need clear water that lets sunlight through. They\ndon\u2019t thrive well when the water is opaque. Sediment and plankton can cloud water,\nwhich decreases the amount of sunlight that reaches the zooxanthellae.<\/li>
  3. Warm water temperature<\/strong>: Reef-building corals require warm water\nconditions to survive. Different corals living in different regions can\nwithstand various temperature fluctuations. However, corals generally live in\nwater temperatures of 20\u201332\u00b0 C.<\/li>
  4. Clean water: <\/strong>Corals are sensitive to pollution and sediments. Sediment\ncan create cloudy water and be deposited on corals, blocking out the sun and\nharming the polyps. Wastewater discharged into the ocean near the reef can\ncontain too many nutrients that cause seaweeds to overgrow the reef.<\/li>
  5. Saltwater: <\/strong>Corals need saltwater to survive and require a certain\nbalance in the ratio of salt to water. This is why corals don\u2019t live in areas\nwhere rivers drain fresh water into the ocean i.e. the estuaries.<\/li>
  6. Abundant Plankton:<\/strong> Adequate supply of oxygen and microscopic marine\nfood, called phytoplankton, is essential for growth. As the plankton is more abundant on\nthe seaward side, corals grow rapidly on the seaward side. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Impact\nof global warming:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Coral bleaching: <\/strong>A warming ocean causes thermal stress that contributes to\ncoral bleaching and infectious disease. Photosynthesis pathways in\nzooxanthellae are also impaired leading to coral bleaching.<\/li>
    2. Smothering of corals: <\/strong>Sea level rise may lead to increases in\nsedimentation for reefs located near land-based sources of sediment.\nSedimentation runoff can lead to the smothering of coral.<\/li>
    3. Destruction: <\/strong>Changes in storm patterns leads to stronger and more\nfrequent storms that can cause the destruction of coral reefs.<\/li>
    4. Impact coral growth: <\/strong>Changes in precipitation, increased runoff of\nfreshwater, sediment, and land-based pollutants contribute to algal blooms and\ncause murky water conditions that reduce light and thus inhibit coral growth.<\/li>
    5. Hampers dispersal: <\/strong>Altered ocean currents leads to changes in connectivity and\ntemperature regimes that contribute to lack of food for corals and hampers\ndispersal of coral larvae.<\/li>
    6. Death of corals: <\/strong>Ocean acidification (a result of increased CO2<\/sub>)\ncauses a reduction in pH levels. Itleads\nto dissolution of calcium carbonates which form the skeletons of coral.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Coral reefs harbour the highest\nbiodiversity of any ecosystem globally and directly support over 500 million\npeople worldwide. They are among the most threatened ecosystems on earth,\nlargely due to unprecedented global warming and climate changes. Limiting\nglobal average temperature to well below 2\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels in\nline with the Paris Agreement provides the chance for the survival of coral\nreefs globally. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Corals are a kind of calcareous rock, chiefly made of the skeletons of minute sea organisms called polyps. Coral reefs and atolls are formed due to the accumulation and compaction of the skeletons of these lime secreting organisms. They form one of the most diverse and productive marine ecosystems on earth housing tens of thousands… Continue reading [Answered] What are the favourable conditions for formation of corals? Analyse the impact of global warming on corals.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-56447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}