Coral Reef

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST

GRACIOUS

AND THE MOST MERCIFUL...!!

➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰

WE LIVE IN A

WONDERFUL WORLD

THAT IS FULL

OF BEAUTY.

CHARM

ADVENTURES

THAT WE CAN

HAVE IF ONLY

WE SEEK THEM

WITH OUR

EYES OPEN...!!

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

CORAL REEF

A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.

Types of Corals

✔Staghorn Coral - Acropora cervicornis

The staghorn coral is a branching, stony coral with cylindrical branches ranging from a few centimetres to over two metres in length and height. It occurs in back reef and fore reef environments from 0 to 30 m depth.

✔Elkhorn Coral - Acropora palmata

Elkhorn coral is an important reef-building coral in the Caribbean. The species has a complex structure with many branches which resemble that of elk antlers, hence the common name. The branching structure creates habitat and shelter for many other reef species.

✔Lettuce Coral - Agaricia agaricites

Agaricia agaricites, commonly known as lettuce coral or tan lettuce-leaf coral, is a species of colonial stony corals in the family Agariciidae. This coral is found in shallow waters in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

✔Grooed Brain Coral - Diploria labrynthiformis

Diploria is a monotypic genus of massive reef building stony corals in the family Mussidae. It is represented by a single species, Diploria labyrinthiformis, commonly known as grooved brain coral and is found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. It has a familiar, maze-like appearance.

✔Common Brain Coral - Diploria strigosa

Brain coral is a common name given to various corals in the families Mussidae and Merulinidae, so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain.

✔Boulder Star Coral - Monstastrea annularis

Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date. It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean.

✔Great Star Coral - Monstastrea cavernosa

Montastraea is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae. One common species, Montastraea cavernosa, is known as great star coral. It forms into massive boulders and sometimes develops into plates.

✔Ivory Bush Coral - Oculina diffusa

Oculina varicosa, or the ivory bush coral, is a scleractinian deep-water coral primarily found at depths of 70-100m, and ranges from Bermuda and Cape Hatteras to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

✔Mustard Hill Coral - Porites asteroides

Porites astreoides, commonly known as mustard hill coral or yellow porites, is a colonial species of stony coral in the family Poritidae. It is a common species in the Caribbean Sea and western tropical Atlantic Ocean in North, Central, and South America; and the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean in western Africa.

✔Clubbed Finger Coral - Porites porites

Porites porites porites (Pallas, 1766) - clubbed finger coral on patch reef. Stony corals have a patchy distribution in the shallow marine waters surrounding San Salvador Island. They occur as isolated individual colonies, in patch reefs, fringing reefs, and barrier reefs.

✔Massive Starlet Coral - Siderastrea siderea

Siderastrea siderea, commonly known as massive starlet coral or round starlet coral, is a stony coral in the family Siderastreidae. It is found in shallow parts of the western Atlantic Ocean as solid boulder-shaped or domed structures.

✔Mushroom Coral - Fungii dae

The Fungiidae are a family of Cnidaria, often known as mushroom corals. The family contains thirteen extant genera. They range from solitary corals to colonial species.

✔Foliose Coral - Pavona

Hard Coral (foliose) ... Foliaceous corals form horizontally flattened, unifacial plates or lobes that are attached to the reef substrate from the basal (ventral) surface. The plates may form tiers, whorls or vases, which can stacked in a complex, multi-layered arrangement.

✔Table Coral - Acroora

Acropora is a genus of small polyp stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. Some of its species are known as table coral, elkhorn coral, and staghorn coral. ... Acropora species are some of the major reef corals responsible for building the immense calcium carbonate substructure that supports the thin living skin of a reef.

✔Encrusting Coral

Definition. Reefs or reef-like, rocky structures dominated by encrusting corals (also called crustose corals) that (a) cover the substrate in a sheet and (b) expand in diameter rather than height.

✔Digitate Coral

These pillar corals were seen in the Florida Keys. Pillar corals are a type of digitate coral, growing upward in cylindrical forms that have been compared to fingers or clumps of cigars. Digitate corals are distinguished from branching corals in that they have no secondary branches.