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Reef Diversity

May 7, 2016

With their clear water and multi-colored organisms, coral reef ecosystems such as this in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) are an iconic sight. But corals also exist in places and forms less iconic—and less idylic. Some corals thrive in deep water far from the reach of sunlight that nourishes the symbiotic algae in their shallow-water cousins. A recent cruise aboard R/V Atlantis also revealed the existence of a coral reef the size of Delaware in the murky waters near the mouth of the Amazon River. Many reefs around the world are being decimated by warming water, which causes them to bleach.(Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)