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Life and Death of Coral Reefs (Hardcover, 1997 ed.)
Loot Price: R8,910
Discovery Miles 89 100
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Life and Death of Coral Reefs (Hardcover, 1997 ed.)
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Coral reefs have shaped the surface of our planet far more than has
any other ecosystem. They are dynamic systems, producing limestone
at the rate of 400-2,000 tons per hectare per year, and influencing
the chemical balance of the world's oceans. Coral reefs have been
around since before the prairies or other ecosystems of flowering
plants existed, yet they vanish about a million years before other
groups of organisms each time there is a global mass extinction.
They return after each catastrophe, however, following a long
period of absence. Although coral reefs are the most productive
communities in the sea, the fisheries of coral reefs are among the
most vulnerable to overexploitation. Despite having the power to
create the most massive structures in the world made by living
creatures (including man), the thin veneer of living tissue of
coral reef is particularly sensitive to natural disturbances and
effects of human activities. Coral reefs are the first to go during
periods of climate change, but they have always come back. This
combination of attributes, creative power and fragility, resilience
and sensitivity, makes management of coral-reef systems a challenge
to science. Over 70% of the coral reefs in the Caribbean and Asian
waters have been degraded, and perhaps a third of the 400 species
of corals in Japanese waters are in danger of local extinction
unless effective coastal management practices are established. This
book presents what is known about factors that shift the balance
between accretion and erosion, recruitment and mortality, stony
corals and filamentous algae, recovery and degradation--the life
and death of coral reefs. Insight into the factors controlling
thedirection of these processes is essential for appropriate
management decisions.
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