Lophelia pertusa
| Lophelia pertusa | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Anthozoa |
| Order: | Scleractinia |
| Family: | Caryophylliidae |
| Genus: |
Lophelia Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1849 |
| Species: | L. pertusa |
| Binomial name | |
|
Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758) |
|
 |
|
| Known range (NOAA) | |
| Synonyms | |
|
|
Lophelia pertusa, the only species in the genus Lophelia, is a cold-water coral which grows in the deep waters throughout the North Atlantic ocean, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea and Alboran Sea.L. pertusa reefs are home to a diverse community, however the species is extremely slow growing and may be harmed by destructive fishing practices, or oil exploration and extraction.
Lophelia pertusa is a reef building, deep water coral, which is unusual for its lack of zooxanthellae - the symbiotic algae which lives inside most tropical reef building corals. Lophelia lives between 80 metres (260 ft) and over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) depth, but most commonly at depths of 200–1,000 metres (660–3,280 ft), where there is no sunlight, and a temperature range from about 4–12 °C (39–54 °F).
As a coral, it represents a colonial organism, which consists of many individuals. New polyps live and build upon the calcium carbonate skeletal remains of previous generations. Living coral ranges in colour from white to orange-red. Unlike most tropical corals, the polyps are not interconnected by living tissue. Radiocarbon dating indicates that some Lophelia reefs in the waters off North Carolina may be 40,000 years old, with individual living coral bushes as much as 1,000 years old.
The coral reproduces by budding off new polyps and by producing free-living planktonic larvae which float in the water until they find a suitable surface to attach to and grow on.
Lophelia reefs can grow to 35 m (115 ft) high. The largest recorded Lophelia reef, Røst Reef, measures 3 km × 35 km (1.9 mi × 21.7 mi) and lies at a depth of 300–400 m (980–1,310 ft) off the Lofoten Islands, Norway. When this is seen in terms of a growth rate of around 1 mm per year, the great age of these reefs becomes apparent.
...
Wikipedia