You won't find Spirobranchus giganteus, also known as the Christmas tree worm, eating your fir tree this year. The common name for these worms is derived from their appearance, not their habitat or diet.

Each worm has two brightly colored crowns that protrude from its tube-like body. These Christmas tree-like crowns are composed of radioles, or hair-like appendages radiating from the worm's central spine. These appendages are used for respiration and to catch dinner, which typically consists of microscopic plants, or phytoplankton, floating in the water.

These worms are sedentary, meaning that once they find a place they like, they don’t move much. In fact, while the colorful crowns of these worms are visible, most of their bodies are anchored in burrows that they bore into live coral. When startled, Christmas tree worms rapidly retract into their burrows, hiding from would-be predators.

Christmas tree worms come in a variety of bright colors. They aren’t very big, averaging about 1.5 inches in length. However, because of their distinctive shape, beauty, and color, these worms are easily spotted. They are some of the most widely recognized polycheates, or marine burrowing, segmented worms out there.

For more information:
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: Christmas Tree Worms

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary: Christmas Tree Worms

Encyclopedia of the Sanctuaries: Christmas Tree Worms

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Corals have long been popular as souvenirs, for home decor, and in jewelry, but many consumers are unaware that these beautiful structures are made by living creatures. Fewer still realize that corals are dying off at alarming rates around the world.
Coral reefs are some of the most biologically rich and economically valuable ecosystems on Earth, but they are increasingly threatened by pollution, invasive species, fishing, disease, bleaching, and global climate change.

Strong consumer demand for coral, heightened over the holiday season, is another factor that is contributing to the decline of coral reefs.

Corals are popular as souvenirs, for home decor and in costume jewelry, yet corals are living animals that eat, grow and reproduce. It takes corals decades or longer to create reef structures, so leave corals and other marine life on the reef.

For more information:
NOAA Coral Reef Watch

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

NOAA Coral Reef Information System

10 Things You Need to Know About Marine Debris

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Reef-building corals are restricted in their geographic distribution by factors such as the temperature and the salinity (salt content) of the water. The water must also be clear to permit high light penetration.

Because of these environmental restrictions, reefs generally are confined to tropical and semitropical waters. The diversity of reef corals (the number of species), decreases in higher latitudes up to about 30° north and south, beyond which reef corals are usually not found.

Generally, there are about twice as many coral species in Pacific Ocean reefs as in Atlantic Ocean reefs.

For more information:
What are Coral Reefs?  NOAA’s Coral Reef Information System
Coral Reef Biology, NOAA's Coral Reef Information System
Corals Tutorial, NOS Education

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Corals are sessile, which means that they permanently attach themselves to the ocean floor, essentially "taking root" like most plants do. We certainly cannot recognize them by their faces or other distinct body parts, as we can most other animals.

So what are corals, anyway?

Corals actually comprise an ancient and unique partnership, called a symbiosis, that benefits both animal and plant life in the ocean. Corals are animals, though, because they do not make their own food, as plants do. Corals have tiny, tentacle-like arms that they use to capture their food from the water and sweep into their inscrutable mouths.

Any structure that we call "a coral" is, in fact, made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps. Each soft-bodied polyp—most no thicker than a nickel—secretes a hard outer skeleton of limestone (calcium carbonate) that attaches either to rock or the dead skeletons of other polyps.

In the case of stony or hard corals, these polyp conglomerates grow, die, and endlessly repeat the cycle over time, slowly laying the limestone foundation for coral reefs and giving shape to the familiar corals that reside there. (The soft corals, which include sea fans, sea pansies, and anemones, are the hard corals' cousins and also play important roles in the reef ecosystem.)

Most corals contain algae called zooxanthellae (pronounced zo-UH-zan-thuh-lay), which are plantlike organisms. Residing within the coral's tissues, the microscopic algae are well protected and make use of the coral's metabolic waste products for photosynthesis, the process by which plants make their own food.

The corals benefit, in turn, as the algae produce oxygen, remove wastes, and supply the organic products of photosynthesis that corals need to grow, thrive, and build up the reef.

More than merely a clever collaboration that has endured between some of the tiniest ocean animals and plants for some 25 million years, this mutual exchange is the reason why coral reefs are the largest structures of biological origin on Earth, and rival old-growth forests in the longevity of their ecological communities.

For more information:
What are Corals and Coral Reefs? – NOAA's Coral Reef Information System
Corals – NOS Education
Coral Reef Conservation
NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program

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Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.

In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. The warm waters centered around the northern Antilles near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico expanded southward. Comparison of satellite data from the previous 20 years confirmed that thermal stress from the 2005 event was greater than the previous 20 years combined.

Not all bleaching events are due to warm water.

In January 2010, cold water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral death. Water temperatures dropped -6.7 degrees Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than the typical temperatures observed at this time of year. Researchers will evaluate if this cold-stress event will make corals more susceptible to disease in the same way that warmer waters impact corals.

For more information :
Coral Reef Conservation Program
Coral Reef Information System
Diving Deeper Podcast, Episode 20 (February 24, 2010):Why are coral reefs valuable?
First Florida Cold-water Bleaching Event in 30 Years
Corals, NOS Education

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The most common type of reef is the fringing reef. This type of reef grows seaward directly from the shore. They form borders along the shoreline and surrounding islands.

When a fringing reef continues to grow upward from a volcanic island that has sunk entirely below sea level, an atoll is formed. Atolls are usually circular or oval in shape, with an open lagoon in the center.

Barrier reefs are similar to fringing reefs in that they also border a shoreline; however, instead of growing directly out from the shore, they are separated from land by an expanse of water. This creates a lagoon of open, often deep water between the reef and the shore.

Coral reefs are important because they bring in billions of dollars to our economy through tourism, protect coastal homes from storms, provide promising medical treatments, and provide a home for millions of aquatic species.

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program works to protect coral reefs through research, education, and preservation programs. Many reefs, such as the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, are housed in NOAA’s system of marine protected areas.

For more information:
What are Coral Reefs, NOAA’s Coral Reef Information System
NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program
Explore: Coral Reef Conservation

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> Here are some things YOU can do:

Educate yourself about why healthy coral reefs are valuable to the people, fish, plants, and animals that depend on them. Become an informed consumer and learn how your daily choices like water use, recycling, seafood, vacation spots, fertilizer use, and driving times can positively (or negatively) impact the health of coral reefs. Find out about existing and proposed laws, programs, and projects that could affect the nation’s coral reefs (or reefs in your area, if this applies to you). Remember to vote at the polls and with your dollars. Dive into action by volunteering for a fish count or a beach or reef cleanup. There are also many things you can do to ensure that you are environmentally conscious when you visit coral reefs or coastal areas. These include things such as hiring local guides to support the local economy, choosing to buy souvenirs that are not made from reef organisms, removing all trash from an area, and never touching or harassing wildlife in reef areas.

Finally, stay informed and spread the word! Your excitement will help get others involved.

For more information:
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
What are Corals?
Things You Can Do to Protect Coral Reefs
Coral Tutorial, NOS Education
Explore: Coral Reef Conservation

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Stony corals (or scleractinians) are the corals primarily responsible for laying the foundations of, and building up, reef structures. Massive reef structures are formed when each individual stony coral organism – or polyp – secretes a skeleton of calcium carbonate.

Most stony corals have very small polyps, averaging one to three millimeters (0.04 to 0.12 inches) in diameter, but entire colonies can grow very large and weigh several tons. These colonies consist of millions of polyps that grow on top of the limestone remains of former colonies, eventually forming massive reefs.

In general, massive corals tend to grow slowly, increasing in size from 0.5 to two centimeters (0.2 to 0.8 inches) per year. However, under favorable conditions (lots of light, consistent temperature, moderate wave action), some species can grow as much as 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) per year.

For more information:
What are Corals and Coral Reefs? – NOAA Coral Reef Information System
Corals – NOS Education
Coral Reef Conservation
NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program

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Reef-building corals cannot tolerate water temperatures below 64° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius). Many grow optimally in water temperatures between 73° and 84° Fahrenheit (23°–29°Celsius), but some can tolerate temperatures as high as 104° Fahrenheit (40° Celsius) for short periods.

Most reef-building corals also require very saline (salty) water ranging from 32 to 42 parts per thousand.

The water must also be clear so that a maximum amount of light penetrates it. This is because most reef-building corals contain photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae, which live in their tissues. The corals and algae have a unique relationship. The coral provides the algae with a protected environment and compounds they need for photosynthesis. In return, the algae produce oxygen and help the coral to remove wastes. Most importantly, zooxanthellae supply the coral with food. The algae need light in order to produce food via photosynthesis.

For more information:
Corals Tutorial, NOS Education
Coral Reef Biology, NOAA's Coral Reef Information System

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Stretching for 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers), the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. The reef is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Coral Sea.

The reef, which is large enough to be visible from space, is made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs. Much of the Great Barrier Reef is a marine protected area, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of Australia.

For more information:
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Coral Reef Conservation
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program


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