The tropical coral reef

dimensiones

Volume: 2,61 m3

iluminación

Lighting: High

temperatura

Temperature: 23/27ºC

Zonation: Infralitoral

Corals, colonies of animals often of vegetable appearance, build enormous structures that form reefs and islands. They are therefore considered great architects of nature.

From a biological viewpoint, reefs are structures built by living organisms with a vegetable appearance, which modify the physical and ecological structures of the place where they develop. In a certain way, they act as dykes or barriers, causing areas of great splashing and calm areas. These are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth, and maybe one of the most complex, as they allow multiple relations to be established between the different ecological niches.

Reefs present a distribution generally between 30° N and 30° S with a single exception, Bermuda (32° S), influenced by the Gulf Stream that brings them warm waters. There are three primordial factors for the existence of reefs: relatively warm waters (above 20°C), shallow (60-80 m) and very clean, where there is no inorganic sediment generally brought by rivers. Another factor that we might attribute in relation to the growth rate of reefs is the symbiosis between them and certain single-cell green seaweed, the zooxantelas, which by living inside the coral cells give a higher output in the growth of the structure thanks to active material exchange.

Other common marine organisms that can be found in this community