Fringing reef Totally Explained

Everything about Fringing Reef totally explained

A Fringing reef is a kind of coral reef, that's located in the tropics generally immediately near the shoreline. This type of coral reef is the most common type of reef that's found. This type of reef grows the best on some kind of hard surface, so it preferentially grows on areas with rocky bottoms. They may also grow on softer bottoms as well if there are some hard areas. Fringing reefs grow as a thin strip along the shore at a rate of about 2 to 7mm per year. It is Darwin’s belief that fringing reefs are the first kind of reefs to form around a landmass in a long-term reef growth process.
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between fringing reefs and another type of reef called a barrier reef. One of the ways that these two types of reefs are separated is based on the depth of the lagoon in the back reef which is the area near to shore. If the water in the lagoon is less than 10m deep it's a fringing reef. Another major difference is that barrier reefs tend to be farther away from shore than fringing reefs and have a larger lagoon.
Many of the reefs that are found in the Great Barrier Reef are actually fringing reefs. Of the close to 3400 reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef 760 of them are actually fringing reefs.

Ways Fringing Reefs Grow

Keep-up: These are reefs that grow at a rate that's similar to the rate that sea level rises.

Differences in Species Diversity in Different Areas of the Reef

The area with the lowest number of different organisms is the backreef area of the fringing reef. Coral species get more diverse as you move farther seaward from the backreef to the reef crest. Some of this difference is due to eutrophication. The eutrophication is mostly due to increased nutrients, sediments and toxicity due to domestic and industrial wastes.
They feel that more macrophytes are found on the bottom due to the increases in nutrients. They also feel that this increase in nutrients has caused an increase in the number of phytoplankton that are present above the coral reef. The increase in phytoplankton has led to reduced light reaching the coral species and has also led to a greater number of larger invertebrates to be found. The sediments that are present within the environment cause increased turbidity and may smother some organisms. The corals present on the fringing reefs use four processes to get rid of sediments which include polyp distension, tentacular movement, ciliary action and mucus production. The corals that are present then are thus likely those that can get rid of the sediments the best. They have also found that the corals that are present in the greatest numbers are those that reproduce via brooding their larva, which in turn leads to higher rates of survival. They find that in the area of the reef closest to the shore that there's generally a lot of fleshy algae which forms on sand and coral rubble. These types of algae include 'Lyngbia' sp. and 'Oscilatoria' sp. They have found on the reef flat that over the years the dominant species in this area have been affected by environmental changes. On fringing reefs in Barbados, species such as 'Diploria strigosa', 'Palythoa mamillosa', and 'Diadema antillarum' are found. The reef crest's most common species is 'Porites porites'. They also found though that there was a lot of this area covered in fleshy algae too.Further Information

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