Although coral reefs appear to be built of sturdy, solid rock, they are actually very fragile. Storms and coral predators damage reefs, but human carelessness may destroy them completely. That is much worse.
Storm damage can wreck corals that have taken hundreds of years to grow in just a few minutes. Crashing waves smash corals into bits, fling then onto the shore or drag them into deeper waters where they are unable to continue their little lives. How sad...
Too many predators of the coral polyps, such as the crown-of-thorns starfish can devour large areas of coral reefs really fast. They leave only the coral skeletons. Recently, whole reefs have been wiped out because there are just so many of these starfish. You can't call them evil, they're just trying to live. Some scientists think that the number of starfish has grown because people have taken too many of their natural enemies.
adapted from life in the coral reef
Done by Tabigail Hung
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment