Coral Reef

What is a Coral Reef?

Coral reefs are the most diverse communities on the planet. These tropical marine communities occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor but are inhabited by at least 25% of all marine species. Scientists estimate that more than 25,000 described species from thirty-two of the world’s thirty-three animal phyla live in reef habitats four times the number of animal phyla found in tropical rain forests.

They are the result of a remarkable relationship between coral animals, known as polyps, and microscopic algae (Zooxanthellae) living in the coral tissues. The polyp resembling a tiny sea anemone is able to feed itself, using stinging cells found on its tentacles which paralyzed passing plankton that they feed upon. This plankton supplies only a small part of the nutritional requirements of the coral. The remainder comes from the microscopic algae that convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and their own wastes into oxygen and carbohydrates (photosynthesis). The carbohydrate is also used by the coral polyp to produce the calcium carbonate skeleton (calcification process). This forms the skeleton of the tiny coral polyp and eventually of a coral colony and the structure of what we recognize today as a coral reef.

      More than 200 species of reef-building coral (Hard coral) have been recorded on the reefs of South Sinai.