The Coral Reefs - Earths Greatest Natural Resources - Some Facts

At least 100 million unnamed species live on the ocean floor alone!

The Worlds Great Living Structures are Coral reefs.

Corals are Living Rocks.

A living coral reef is as diverse as any rain forest and can be likened to a rain forest, where the coral it self is the equivalent of a tree. Many trees make a forest and many corals make a reef. Many woodland creatures depend on the trees for food and as a home and it is the same with a reef. Marine animals of all shapes and sizes live on a coral reef.

Corals are tiny marine animals, called polyps, coral polyps are related to and look like sea anemones. Each individual coral secretes a stony cup of limestone around itself as a skeleton. The polyps divide as they grow and form coral colonies. As the coral colonies build up on top of each other, they gradually form a coral reef. Individual coral colonies may be up to 1000 years old. Coral reefs may be many thousands of years old, forming slowly over time, responding to changes in sea level and other environmental conditions. A coral reef is the largest living structure on our planet.

It is estimated that between 70% and 80% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced by marine plants . Nearly all marine plants are single celled, photosynthetic algae. Even marine seaweed is many times colonial algae. They are a bunch of single cells trying to look like a big plant but they are really individuals.

We need marine algae a whole lot more than they need us. Think about it….70% to 80% of all the oxygen we breathe comes from algae! Without them we would really be sucking wind, but not for long! At this point you may be saying, "Yo! What about the trees and other land plants?" Well, trees and other land plants are very important, no doubt about it. But for pure survival, we couldn't make it without algae.

Why does so much of our oxygen come from algae? Well, first of all, remember that the oceans cover about 71% of this planet and land is only about 29%. If we assume that every square mile of the ocean produces as much oxygen as every square mile of land, then this makes sense. The oceans would produce about 71% and the land 29% of the oxygen we breathe.

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Marine Algae.

Marine algae exists in different concentrations throughout the world's oceans, depending on the amount of nutrients that are available. The colder the surface waters, the more these essential nutrients -- like iron -- can flourish and support phytoplankton, which are microscopic algae. There are widespread concentrations of marine algae throughout the world's oceans, with the highest concentrations in the colder arctic waters.

Now the question is, "Are the oceans, indeed, as productive as the land?" At first you might not think so, after all when you look at the land there are trees and bushes and grass and all kinds of plants growing. They must crank out oxygen to beat the band! They do, but also remember that there are many places on land that don't have much in the way of plants. How about Antarctica or the Sahara Desert along with many others? These are pretty good sized chunks of real estate where plants are few and far between. How much oxygen is being pumped out in these areas?

I would venture to say there's not enough to keep a pack of wild hamsters (ever seen wild hamsters?) going for very long. So, some areas on land have an abundance of plants and produce a large quantity of oxygen while others have very few plants and produce very little.

The same can be said for the oceans. There are some areas that have an abundance of algae living in the waters and other areas that don't. In the ocean there are areas of upwelling where cold, nutrient rich bottom water moves toward the surface. These upwelling waters mix with the surface water and produce an area that is like liquid fertilizer for plants. They go ballistic and there are billions of the little critters in the water just pumping out oxygen left and right. Other areas of the oceans don't have much in the way of nutrients in the water and they are like the deserts on land with very few plants.

Marine conservation is the business of all of us, if the oceans die so do we Share

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