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| | | How Do Stony Corals Grow? |
Maintained by NOAA
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| | How Do Stony Corals Grow? | | | | Most stony corals have very small polyps, averaging 1 to 3 millimeters in diameter, but entire colonies can grow very large and weigh several tons. As they grow, these reefs provide structural habitats for hundreds to thousands of different vertebrate and invertebrate species. The skeletons of stony corals are secreted by the lower portion of the polyp. This process produces a cup, or calyx, in which the polyp sits. The walls surrounding the cup are called the theca, and the floor is called the basal plate. Periodically, a polyp will lift off its base and secrete a new basal plate above the old one, creating a small chamber in the skeleton. While the colony is alive, CaCO3 is deposited, adding partitions and elevating the coral. Coral species number in the thousands, and stony corals take on several characteristic forms. Reefs form when polyps secrete skeletons of calcium carbonate | | | | |
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| Mexico designates 34 new Wetlands of International Importance
by Valencia, Iván Dario and Guitart, Sebastià Semene, Convention on Wetlands 02 February 2004 | |
| | On World Wetlands Day 2004, the Government of Mexico designated 34 new Wetlands of International Importance, a record for the greatest number of Ramsar Sites designated on the same day (and in addition to a further 10 Ramsar Sites designated by Mexico in November 2003). A very large array of wetland types and values are represented in the new designations, from high altitude lakes to inland lake systems to turtle beaches and coral reefs, totaling over three million hectares (30,000 km2). Mexico now has 51 Ramsar Sites covering a surface area of 5,101,433 hectares. Full information is available at the Ramsar Convention Site in English and in Español. | |
Read more at http://ramsar.org/.
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