The Coral Reefs Stock Photo

Coral reefs are calcareous organogenic geological structures formed by colonial coral polyps(mainly madrepore corals) and proportional waves that restrain the outpouring of seawaters (“bioherms”). Formed in shallow waters in tropical seas. In the early 1980s, the totalarea of coral reefs was about 600 thousand km², by 2000 it had decreased to approximately250 thousand km² (0.07% of the area of the World Ocean). The main reef massesare located in the seas of Southeast Asia (45% of the world's areal reefs), about 14% inthe Atlantic, 17% in the Indian Ocean, 18% in the Pacific and 6% in the Red Sea. With globalwarming of 2°C, virtually all reefs (>99 percent) will be lost.