Coral Reef

The term "coral reef" generally refers to a marine ecosystem in which the main organisms are corals that house algal symbionts within their tissues. These ecosystems require:

1) fully marine waters;
2) warm temperatures; and
3) ample sunlight.

They are therefore restricted to shallow waters of tropical and subtropical regions.

Corals that do not have algal symbionts can also form significant reef communities in deeper, darker, and colder waters, but these communities are distinguished as cold-water coral bioherms.

The more technical definition of "coral reef" includes an additional geological requirement that the reef organisms produce enough calcium carbonate to build the physical reef structure. The coral reef community lives only on the surface veneer of the reef, on top of already existing skeletal material left behind by previous reef-builders. Many processes act to break down the skeletal material and reef as soon it is laid down by organisms. These include mechanical processes such as waves and currents, and a wide array of biological processes (e.g., bioerosion). Some of the best known bioeroders are large organisms such as parrotfish and sponges, but much of the bioerosion occurs at the microscopic scale by organisms such as algae and fungi. A coral reef is produced only if the coral reef community produces more calcium carbonate than is removed. Indeed, some coral reef communities grow too slowly to build a reef.

Coral reefs can take a variety of forms, defined in following;

• Apron reef – short reef resembling a fringing reef, but more sloped; extending out and downward from a point or peninsular shore.
• Fringing reef – reef that is directly attached to a shore or borders it with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
• Barrier reef – reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon; see Great Barrier Reef.
• Patch reef – an isolated, often circular reef, usually within a lagoon or embayment.
• Ribbon reef – long, narrow, somewhat winding reef, usually associated with an atoll lagoon.
• Table reef – isolated reef, approaching an atoll type, but without a lagoon.
• Atoll reef – a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef extending all the way around a lagoon without a central island; see atoll.
• Bank Reef – Bank reefs are larger than patch reefs and are linear or semi-circular in outline.