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Corals: Environmental Controls on Growth

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Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definitions

Coral growth: The establishment, survival, and increase in size of living zooxanthellate corals as individuals, populations, and communities.

Coral calcification: The biological process of the synthesis of calcium carbonate by corals. Its rate is reported in gm cm−2year−1. A given rate of calcification is manifest in a coral skeleton as its rate of linear extension (cm year−1) of a particular density (gm cm−3).

Environment: The physical, chemical, nutritional, and ecological milieu in which corals grow.

Microenvironment: “Environment” impinging upon an individual coral in situ.

Introduction

Corals grow vigorously and build reefs in shallow tropical seas, due to the favorable environment, both “latitude-correlated environmental factors” (Veron, 1995) and factors that are not related to latitude. The latitude-correlated environmental factors are solar radiation, temperature, and water chemistry (Kleypas et al., 1999), and those not related to latitude include nature and...

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  1. Australian Institute of Marine Science, 4810, PMB 3 Townsville MC, QLD, Australia

    Terry Done

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Correspondence to Terry Done .

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  1. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    David Hopley

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Done, T. (2011). Corals: Environmental Controls on Growth. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_10

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