Skip to main content

EnvThes - Thesaurus for long term ecological research, monitoring and experiments

Content language

... > region > biome > aquatic ecosystem > marine ecosystem > coral reef

Preferred term

coral reef

[GEMET] Coral reefs have been built up from the skeletons of reef-building coral a small primitive marine animal, and other marine animals and algae over thousands of years. They occur in clear, shallow and sunlit seas. Coral reefs are one of the most productive and diverse ecosystems and are estimated to yield about 12% of the world's fish catch. They are very vulnerable to any change in their environment, especially pollution, because it makes the water opaque. They must have light in order that photosyntesis by the algae can take place. Like trees, corals reflect the environmental conditions in which they grow, indicating marine pollution, sea-surface temperature and other aquatic conditions.

marine ecosystem

[controlled by ] Mauro Bastianini 6.6.13

US LTER controlled vocabulary

Creator

herbert.schentz@umweltbundesamt.at

URI

http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/21805

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD Created 3/31/16, last modified 1/13/23