2024-01-21 12:26:22
Coral discovered in the deep sea. Unlike regular corals, white is a healthy color for deep-sea corals. Deep-sea corals do not interact with symbiotic algae, so they do not have color. [사진=NOAA]
The world’s largest deep-sea coral reef was discovered off the East Coast of the United States this month. The size is approximately 25,900 square meters. It stretches from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. The survey results were published in the open access geography journal Geomatics.
The coral reef is located in an area called the Blake Plateau. Scientists determined that the Blake Plateau area was likely a ‘dead zone’. A dead zone is an area where most marine life dies due to low oxygen concentration in the water. However, as scientists investigated the dead zone, an ecosystem full of corals emerged.
“For many years, we thought most of the Blake Plateau was soft sediment with very little life,” said Casey Cantwell, director of NOAA Ocean Exploration Operations. “Until , we didn’t know how wide the habitat was or how many coral masses were connected,” he said.
According to coral reef survey officials, traces of the huge coral reef were first revealed in 2019. However, following clearly confirming the reality, it was decided to disclose the existence of the coral reef to the public. The Ocean Observation Project, a joint effort of NOAA, the University of New Hampshire, the National Oceanic Energy Agency, Temple University, and the U.S. Geological Survey, led the investigation. The researchers identified 83,908 coral peaks. Dense coral peaks up to 254,276 meters long and 41,842 meters wide were also observed.
Coral reefs are composed of stony corals that live at depths of 200 to 1,000 meters below sea level. The water temperature is 3.8 degrees, which is suitable for stony corals that grow in cold environments. NOAA explained that stony corals grow deep in the ocean without sunlight and survive by filtering out plankton and other organic matter. Corals are known as “critical ecosystem engineers” providing shelter, food and homes for fish and other invertebrates, but much regarding their ecosystems and habitats remains unknown, according to Popular Science US.
NOAA official Derek Sowers said the research that found the coral was aimed at identifying unexplored ocean areas. “(This study) provides a methodology to interpret large-area marine data to gain insight into seafloor habitats and advance standardized approaches that can be used to support ecosystem management and conservation efforts,” he concluded. .
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