Corals are the oldest creatures on earth. The most beautiful place in Australia

One of the natural wonders of the world. The largest and most beautiful coral reef in Australia. Included in the list of World Heritage Sites.

Great Barrier Reef(Great Barrier Reef) is a ridge of coral reefs and islands formed by them. Stretches along the north east coast Australia, along the mainland at 2300 km. In the northern part, the reef has a width of about 2 km, in the southern part it reaches 150 km. Most of the reefs are located under water and are exposed only at low tide. Part of the reefs under the influence of the abrasion-accumulative effect of the sea were transformed into coral islands, often having the shape of a horseshoe and with a convex side directed towards the southeast trade wind.

All islands of the barrier reef form a single hill, its length is equal to the distance from Odessa to Murmansk. At the same time, all this was created by tiny organisms - coral polyps belonging to the class of intestinal cavities. However, their peculiarity is that they hide their body in a hard calcareous shell. Many millions of fused shells of these organisms form a coral reef.

It is safe to say that the Great Barrier Reef is the most grandiose and one of the most beautiful buildings on earth created by living organisms. Human creations cannot compete with it: neither the Channel Tunnel, nor the Great Wall of China.

And as experienced travelers who have visited different places on the planet and scuba diving off the coast of the Seychelles and the Maldives say, Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos archipelago, which have seen the coral thickets of the Red and caribbean, with scale and variety underwater world Nothing beats the Great Barrier Reef.

No wonder thousands of tourists come to Australia to admire the incomparable blue lagoons and straits, in which the countless living treasures of the Great Barrier Reef lurk.

First Coral reefs originated here millions of years ago. Although the main part of the reefs is 500,000 years old. During this long time, coral polyps were able to build buildings, the average height of which is 120 meters.

Describing the stunning beauty and great diversity of life on the Great Barrier Reef, people do not spare magnificent epithets and comparisons: “The greatest architectural structure of nature on the whole planet”, “Blue Dream World”, “Amazing underwater forest”, “The eighth wonder of the world”, “The richest marine ecosystem of the world”, etc.

And in truth, in terms of the number of inhabitants and their amazing picturesque appearance, the Great Barrier Reef has no equal in the oceans. Only corals here are about 400 species. Some of them look like a human brain, others look like strange lacy mushrooms, others look like deer antlers. Corals here have a variety of colors, different hardness and structure.

Surprisingly, corals are only a tenth of the population of the underwater barrier. Also, more than 4,000 species of mollusks live there, from snails to huge meter-long bivalve tridacnids, as well as sponges, sea anemones, crabs, crayfish, starfish, a lot of algae and other things.

Especially interesting and beautiful in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef - look at a variety of fish species. In terms of exotic coloring and shapes, nothing compares to the kingdom of coral fish! There are several thousand of them here.

Great Barrier Reef for many travelers is the most beautiful place not only in Australia, but all over the world.

Coral reefs are the largest and most magnificent living structures on our planet, the greatest reservoirs of biological formations. Although today, unfortunately, they are under the threat of extinction. Scientists have calculated that if immediate measures are not taken to correct the situation, then we risk losing up to 70% of all coral reefs by 2050.

Let's hope that people still manage to save our oceans, including coral reefs, in the form that they are today, and our descendants will be able to admire their splendor not only from pictures in books, but also live.

We invite you to take a look at our selection of coral reefs, which are considered the most beautiful and fantastic on Earth.

Coral reefs of the Red Sea

The Red Sea is home to over 260 different types of stony corals and over 1,100 species of fish. This sea is located between the Sahara and the Arabian deserts. The Red Sea coral reef is over 1200 miles long. Its age exceeds 5000 years. They began to emerge during the reign of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

Coral reefs Florida Keys

The shallow waters of the Florida Keys provided ideal conditions to create beautiful coral reefs. These corals were formed due to the warm tropical climate under the influence of waves. There is a lot of plankton here, which is necessary for the survival of various types of living creatures. Unfortunately, these reefs are on the verge of extinction and, according to some sources, by 2020 they may completely die.

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef

The Caribbean Sea is home to many varieties of fish and rare animals. It borders one of the largest and most beautiful coral reefs in the world. Its size is approximately 943 kilometers. This reef is also under threat from changes in sea levels and ocean chemistry.

For many years, the Philippine Apo coral reef area has been an active fishery for catching all living things, including the use of incendiary substances. As a result, a third of the coral reef has completely disappeared. The Philippine government has decided to ban fishing in an area of 170 square miles off the coast of Mindoro Island. Today Apo Reef is national park and protected area.

Andros in the Bahamas is considered one of the longest barrier reefs in the world (its length is more than 140 miles). Divers have the opportunity to explore many interesting areas within these reefs. Andros Island, near which this reef is located, is located along the edge of the crevice of the ocean, which is called the Tongue of the Ocean.

Maldives Chagos-Lakshadvil Atolls

This structure is a chain of coral reefs that is 280 km long. These reefs are located along the coast of Belize, approximately 300 meters from the coast in the northern part and 40 kilometers in the southern limits of the country. The Belize Barrier Reef is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, which is one of the largest reefs in the world (2nd after the Great Barrier Reef).

The very name "Raja Ampat" means "4 kings". Four major islands Batanta, Misuul, Salwati and Waigeo, which are connected to hundreds of smaller islands, surround these coral reefs. This Indonesian coral reef is rich in animal world. There are more than 1,500 species of fish, about 700 species of molluscs and over 500 species of stony corals.

Barrier reef of New Caledonia

This is the third largest coral reef and is also considered one of the most magnificent in the world. It is here that the endangered dugong lives, and green turtles also lay their eggs. The place near the reef is famous for its clearest waters. The lagoons of this barrier reef are included in the list of objects world heritage UNESCO.

This reef extends for approximately 130,000 square miles. This is more than the United Kingdom. The Great Barrier Reef is arguably the largest coral reef in the world. Moreover, it is even the largest object created naturally from living organisms. It is considered one of the seven world wonders.

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There are many lists advertising the seven wonders. ancient world, the new world, various countries and continents, but no list has yet been created for the seven wonders of the underwater world. In 1989 CEDAM International, an international association of divers, decided to create their own ranking describing the world's most breathtaking underwater locations. In this article, you will find a fascinating tour of the seas, lakes and oceans, offering a virtual acquaintance with the 7 wonders of the underwater world.

1. Galapagos Islands: Located in pacific ocean, west of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands grew from earth's crust from an ocean volcano at the bottom of the ocean. The relatively new volcanic geology has created a habitat rich in flora, fauna and animal life that has been studied and admired by numerous travelers, scientists and nature lovers from every continent.

2. Northern Red Sea: Some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world are located in the Northern Red Sea. They are even called the underwater "Garden of Paradise". This reef has the most diverse marine life in the world. Situated between Asia and Africa, the Northern Red Sea spans over 169,000 square miles. There are over 70 species of hard coral, 30 species of soft coral, over 500 species of fish including hundreds of additional species of reef marine life.

3. The Palau Islands are located approximately 500 miles from island nation Philippines. In local reefs you can observe the most beautiful views of fish in the world, more than 350 species of stony corals, 200 species of soft corals, 300 species of sponges and 1,300 species of reef fish.

4. Lake Baikal is the second largest reservoir of fresh water in the world. Located in Russia, the lake has average depth 2,442 feet and contains approximately 20% of the world's surface fresh water. 25 million years old and 1642 meters deep, Lake Baikal is the oldest and most deep lake in the world.

5. Great Barrier Reef: the most big system coral reefs in the world. Located in Australia, this reef system is made up of 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, 1,600 miles in total length. The overall structure of a reef is made up of billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps. Along with the ocean, the reef creates a habitat that supports a wide variety of marine life that is currently endangered. Due to the vast beauty of the Reef, people find it very attractive to visit, thereby causing damage to the local nature and ecosystem.

6. Deep sea vents, otherwise known as hypothermal vents, are fissures along the ocean floor that release superheated water from deep within the earth's crust. The hot water is saturated with dissolved minerals, mainly sulfides, which crystallize to create a chimney-like opening around each vent. When the superheated water in the valve reaches the cold ocean water Many minerals are released, creating a distinctive black color. Deep Sea vents were first discovered in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are believed to exist in both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, on average at a depth of 2100 meters.

7. Belize Barrier Reef: The second largest reef system in the world. Located on the coast of Belize, this reef is believed to be one of the the best places in the world to dive and swim. Over 186 miles long, the reef is part of the larger Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which stretches from Cancun to Honduras for a total of 560 miles. Only 10% of this reef has actually been explored. Part of the reef is the famous blue hole Belize:

Coral reef - is a huge colony, consisting of billions of tiny creatures - coral polyps. Their length is only a few millimeters. They absorb calcium dissolved in sea water, forming a calcareous skeleton of the colony from it.

The most famous and longest coral reef stretches for almost two thousand kilometers along the east coast of Australia - this is. It consists of many coral islands. It consists of about 2,900 individual reefs and 71 islands. Some call this reef the eighth wonder of the world, but for scuba divers, this is the most popular place. Its age is not less than ten thousand years. Reefs grow at different rates. Some manage to grow 20 centimeters from year to year, while others barely add 20 millimeters.

About 4,000 species of mollusks, about 2,000 species of fish, 1,000 different sponges, 350 species of starfish and other echinoderms live in coral reefs. In total, there are almost two and a half thousand reef-forming corals.

Hollows are visible on the surface of the reefs: polyps hid in them and wait for their prey. Polyps catch plankton. They are helped to hunt by their stinging capsules, whose touch is also unpleasant for humans.

German journalist Alfrem Brehm cites the story of a scientist who studied corals: “I try to break off a branch from another coral, but again unsuccessfully: the coral turns out to be burning and at the first touch my hand starts to burn terribly, as if it had been burned.” Polyps feed on unicellular, as well as larvae of worms and tiny crustaceans teeming in plankton.

In addition, they absorb the nutrients contained in the water. However, this diet is not sufficient for most corals. Therefore, they live in symbiosis with unicellular algae. Algae help the corals by supplying them with oxygen, and in return they receive minerals. It is algae that paint tropical coral reefs in amazing colors.

And so, all this is good, and there are many advantages for the animal world from coral reefs, as we see. But, in 1998 in the Pacific and Indian Oceans began to notice the death of coastal corals. And it turned out that a quarter of the entire Great Barrier Reef was damaged. The decline in the number of reefs is observed today, scientists are working on this problem. They argue that if things go on like this, then humanity will also have problems, and not just the fish world.

Corals are dying primarily because the water in the oceans is getting warmer due to the greenhouse effect. This conclusion was made by employees of the National Oceanographic Institute of the United States, Corals are very sensitive to all changes in temperature. In tropical seas, the water is usually warmed up to 26 - 28 degrees. If for a few days it rises by only one degree, then the corals already become uneasy: they experience real stress. And there comes a state in which they are forced to reject the algae with which they live in symbiosis. The reefs are discolored, their variegated color fades. The lush underwater forest turns into a dull, whitish frame made up of calcareous skeletons.

Australian biologist Professor Ove Heg-Guldberg from the University of Sydney confirmed this conjecture with the help of simple experiments (their results were published in the summer of 1999). He placed the corals in a simple aquarium and heated the water in it, after a while their fertility dropped by 40 percent. If the extinction of coral reefs continues, the seas will become completely different, their water world will become scarcer.

Here is what the famous 19th-century zoologist Alfred Edmund Brehm wrote about coral reefs - “wonderful coral thickets surpass the mythical gardens of the Hesperides.” Coral reefs provide a huge service to cities by serving as natural breakwaters. In addition, some coral species are used in medicine, such as Eleutherobia. This species produces the protein eleutherobin, which stops the development of cancer cells.

In general, coral reefs feed many and are useful to many, including humans. But there is a way out, you can restore the dead sections of the reef. Many species of reef breed only once a year, throwing out their germ cells in the spring, on a full moon. For several days, the sea near the reef is covered with an abundant slimy mass. Then the larvae sink to the bottom, forming a new colony or growing together with the parent community.

Thus, this building material can be transferred to problem areas.

Or is there another, more interesting way. A wire is taken, pubescent in water, passing a small current through it. Soon the metal is covered with a crust: brucite and calcium carbonate are deposited on it - substances containing magnesium and calcium. This crust serves as a haven for corals and mollusks. Over time, the reef grows. In this way, you can control the general appearance of the reef. For example, you can extend a line along the beach.

coral reef photo

let's talk about corals- the oldest creatures on Earth and one of the most beautiful marine life.

Great Barrier Reef- the largest population of coral polyps that formed a reef system with a length of more than 2600 kilometers. The reef is located along north coast Australia. The Great Barrier Reef has over 2,900 independent reefs and 900 coral islands.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. About 400 species of corals, 1,500 species of fish and a variety of other animals and plants have been found here.

UNESCO has listed the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site. (Photo by Nicole Duplaix):

Corals are the flowers of the sea. These corals from the Philippines really look like flowers. (Photo by Tim Laman):

Corals are unusual marine animals, representatives of the coelenterates - one of the most primitive types of living creatures on Earth. This is one of the oldest groups of multicellular organisms on Earth, they have existed for many millions of years. Corals are unusual in that they have the ability to form a strong calcareous skeleton that persists after the death of the animal and contributes to the formation of atolls and reefs.

It grows up to 30 cm. It often lives at the entrance to underwater caves, at shallow depths, up to 30 meters. (Photo by Heather Perry):

Corals live in tropical and subtropical sea waters and live in water with a temperature of at least 21 degrees Celsius. Corals come in different colors (pink, red, blue, white, black), their color depends on the composition and amount of organic compounds. More than 2500 varieties of corals are known. (Photo by Tim Laman):

Red corals are called "blood foam", "flower of blood", black - "royal corals". Pink, red and black corals are considered the most valuable. The coral reef is a kind of magnet, attracting crabs, lobsters, mollusks, fish and scuba divers for various reasons. (Photo by Heather Perry):

. (Photo by Tim Laman):

(Photo by Tim Laman):

In the Cayman Islands. Coral reefs are calcareous geological structures formed by coral polyps and some types of algae. total area coral reefs in the world exceeds 27 million km². They are located mainly in the Pacific and Indian oceans. About 1/3 of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed. With the current trend, some reefs will be destroyed by 2030. (Photo by Raul Touzon):

V papua new guinea. The word "coral" in our mind is always associated with something solid. , fragile. However, there are also soft corals, which, as the name suggests, lack a solid, hard skeleton. Soft corals can take quite large areas on the reef. Many species of soft corals shrink into shapeless clumps during the day, only to spread out at dusk. Therefore, their exquisite beauty can only be fully appreciated during a night dive. (Photo by Wolcott Henry):

Alcyonaria or soft corals- the most numerous order of eight-pointed corals. They are widely distributed in the seas and oceans, occurring from the polar regions to the equator and from the littoral to great depths. (Photo by Wolcott Henry):