2010 has been declared as the year of Biodiversity by the UN.
Hopefully this will actually mean something more than just a "fancy name " for this year.
Marine Biodiversity in the tropics is immense due to the thousands species of coral and
all the animals that are associated with them, that is well known. Here in snowy Greece
(and the rest of the Mediterranean) we have the one and only scleractinian coral that can
form reefs, Cladocora caespitosa.
We might only have one reef building species of coral here, but our seas are as spectacular
as the tropics, only sized down a little bit, but that does not matter! (Dive Greece Baby!)
Cladocora caespitosa
This amazing coral can form colonies up to 1m in diameter and one big colony was discovered
some years ago on a reef in Vourvourou, Chalkidiki(hope it's still there!)! As most corals, it is
composed of an external, calcareous skeleton which is secreted by the living organism contained
within it. The individual coral polyps(the little tentacles that are visible in the picture above) are
symbiotic with algal zooxanthellae, which photosynthesize to produce nutrients for its host.
The Cladocora coral reproduces sexually, releasing orange eggs and bundles of sperm before the
full moon in the summer months, in the Adriatic banks of this coral this happened in June.
The shape of the colonies depend on depth, light and currents.
It has a growth rate of a few mm per year, making it extremely slow growing.
Diving in Pilion last summer we were shocked to find massive coral structures completely
torn to bits at a depth of 40 meters.
The first time I encountered these massive formations and they were all dead....
Vizualising these corals when they were alive and the life they contained within and around them
is wondrous, but for the sake of biodiversity and for a healthy ecosystem...
I hope this year we permit our one and only reef building coral to grow.
Hopefully this will actually mean something more than just a "fancy name " for this year.
Marine Biodiversity in the tropics is immense due to the thousands species of coral and
all the animals that are associated with them, that is well known. Here in snowy Greece
(and the rest of the Mediterranean) we have the one and only scleractinian coral that can
form reefs, Cladocora caespitosa.
We might only have one reef building species of coral here, but our seas are as spectacular
as the tropics, only sized down a little bit, but that does not matter! (Dive Greece Baby!)
Cladocora caespitosa
This amazing coral can form colonies up to 1m in diameter and one big colony was discovered
some years ago on a reef in Vourvourou, Chalkidiki(hope it's still there!)! As most corals, it is
composed of an external, calcareous skeleton which is secreted by the living organism contained
within it. The individual coral polyps(the little tentacles that are visible in the picture above) are
symbiotic with algal zooxanthellae, which photosynthesize to produce nutrients for its host.
The Cladocora coral reproduces sexually, releasing orange eggs and bundles of sperm before the
full moon in the summer months, in the Adriatic banks of this coral this happened in June.
The shape of the colonies depend on depth, light and currents.
It has a growth rate of a few mm per year, making it extremely slow growing.
Diving in Pilion last summer we were shocked to find massive coral structures completely
torn to bits at a depth of 40 meters.
The first time I encountered these massive formations and they were all dead....
Vizualising these corals when they were alive and the life they contained within and around them
is wondrous, but for the sake of biodiversity and for a healthy ecosystem...
I hope this year we permit our one and only reef building coral to grow.
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