Prior to the 1980s, most mass coral moralities were related to non-thermal disturbances such as storms, aerial exposures during extreme low tides, and Acanthaster outbreaks. Coral reefs are oases of high primary productivity in barren tropical seas, and reef-building organisms have changed the face of the earth by creating entire archipelagoes of islands and, over geological time, landforms that have become incorporated in continents. Why do tropical coral reefs prefer high wave energy locations? Pummeled by waves and ocean currents, coral exoskeletons can experience bioerosion . Start studying geog coasts kq3. Coral reefs are believed by many to have the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem on the planet—even more than a tropical rainforest. High winds, heavy rain, storm surge, and flooding associated with these disasters can pull large structures, household products, and outdoor items into surrounding waters. Scientists have long wondered how corals manage to eke out a living in the nutrient-poor waters they tend to occupy. Coral reef fishes have developed a wide array of feeding modes to harness the diversity of food sources on coral reefs. Why are coral reefs so fragile, and what does it have to do with the specific characteristics and conditions of their environment? Areas where cold currents well up continuously from the sea bed, such as the Galapagos coast, are constantly supplied with nutrients and hence are highly productive. Coral reef ecosystems also contribute to the human geography of a region. Coral bleaching accompanied some of the mortality events prior to the 1980s during periods of elevated sea water temperature, but these disturbances were geographically isolated and restricted to particular reefs zones. The first aspect to understand is that coral reefs are extremely complex ecosystems that depend on many parameters having to be … Introduction Productivity- the rate at which new materials are produced from their precursors by living things; new tissues, offspring, carbohydrates that leak from a cell Productivity of an organism or population- rate at which it turns resources into more of itself Coral reefs have some of the highest productivity rates in the world because of their abundance of life. This productivity explains why estuaries attract such huge numbers of birds. The average gross primary productivity of a coral reef system is 4200 (g C m-2 yr-1). Coral polyps, the animals primarily responsible for building reefs, can take many forms: large reef building colonies, graceful flowing fans, and even small, solitary organisms.Thousands of species of corals have been discovered; some live in warm, shallow, tropical seas and others in the cold, dark depths of the ocean. to be the first in obtaining dissolved and suspended material in the water; food particles What provides the raw material for large and complex food webs within an estuary? Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tropical storms, tsunamis, and landslides have the potential to be the source of a tremendous amount of marine debris. Marine ecosystems generally have low productivity. These eroded fragments of coral (along with bony fragments of organisms such as foraminifera , mollusks, and crustaceans) create a soft sand known as coral sand. Rehana Raj DFK 1307 I Ph.D College of Fisheries Mangalore 2. Productivity of coral reefs 1. 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