Pixar's classic animated film Finding Nemo tells the story of Marlin the clownfish and his partner in search of their son Nemo in the Pacific Ocean. The ugly and witty clownfish in the film makes people remember that it is dressed in orange stripes, and the builder of the magnificent scene on the seabed, the coral. They are sometimes safe and sometimes dangerous, such as the anemone coral, which is the settlement and umbrella of the protagonist of the story, the clownfish, but whose tentacles contain venom.
Clownfish swim among coral antennae. (Infographic/Figure)
Corals are a special form of creature that is different from the rest of the world, consisting of seemingly simple organisms called "polyps". It has its own set of rules of survival, standing on both sides of the pole and the pole, hunting differently or being pecked without resistance. Like buildings in every corner of the city, it lurks in the depths of the underwater world, taking the route of "exquisite silence", accommodating different marine groups, formulating near-strict rules of accommodation, and directing the traffic. During the day they photosynthesis, at night the plants dormant, polyps awaken, the antennae begin to stretch out, and any creature that comes near them is captured by the spine cells at the tips of these tentacles.
<h3>Vitality "crisis"</h3>
At depths of 100 to 200 metres, corals grow in calm and clear rocks, platforms, slopes and cliff faces, crevices, and are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions with temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius at the equator and its vicinity. Some inhabit the deep sea, the deepest record is the Aleutian symmetrical fungus cup coral found at 6238 meters in the Aleutian Trench, and some are distributed in shallow surface layers, generally at 40 meters, which are "underwater gardens" on the tropical seashore.
Although it seems that corals do not have strict requirements for the growth environment, in history, after the mass extinction of organisms at the end of the Permian, the wrinkled-walled corals and transverse corals bred in the Paleozoic era all disappeared, and 9-10 stony coral subjects were not discovered until the Middle Triassic.
The growth and reproduction rates of different coral groups are very far apart. Fast growth rates tend to form large areas of coral reefs. The growth rate of red coral is relatively low, it belongs to deep-water gorgonian coral, and it is basically impossible to cultivate in artificial environments. The Classic of Mountains and Seas once recorded: "Corals are born in the sea, and if they want to take them, they first make iron sink into the water, and corals are born through the net." Two or three feet tall, with branches and leaves, rows like trees. Out of the stranded net. Many unscrupulous merchants cannot withstand the temptation of huge economic returns to salvage red corals, and drag them with special fishing nets, leaving no grass where they go, causing serious damage to the ecological environment.
According to WWF, almost a quarter of the world's coral reefs have been damaged beyond repair. In the florida keys, where there was once a fascinating landscape for diving enthusiasts, 80-90% of the corals are now gone, and the refracted light formed through the sea surface shines on the skeletons of the coral swarms, exposing the earth color of the rock surface, dull and lifeless. Fifty or thirty years ago, there were countless living corals, shining in the watery ocean.
Damaged corals on the seabed (infographic/photo)
At the same time, unlike history, the demise of corals gradually became rapid and direct. American Samoa has a well-known airport reef that jumps to the bottom of the sea only to find many corals that have fallen into an "bleaching" state. The original colorful corals looked like fading, and the surface resembled white frost. The study found that the culprit of this phenomenon of bleaching, which can occur in just a few weeks, is not disease or pest, but raises the ocean temperature by 2 degrees Celsius. Microscopic temperature changes cause corals to react under pressure, and the polyps detach from the plant body as quickly as possible to protect themselves, leaving bare and transparent tissue. If you can see the white and clean bones of the corals, they are still living creatures, but they no longer accept any symbiont attachment, and they will gradually stop growing, reproducing, and dying. Without a favorable living environment, most of the fish that depend on corals for abundant nutrients may disappear, and the interlocking ecological chain is also in danger of imbalance.
<h3>Three primary colors of paradise</h3>
If you forget for a moment the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of beautiful things, from the aesthetic value alone, coral is definitely a delicate return of nature. It is an ornament that embellishes the paradise of the seabed, different coral species have different forms, some seem boring, round and hard like an ordinary large stone on the seabed; some are fan-shaped and have a luxuriant branching form; some are clustered like petals, and the colors are soft. They converge into massive structures that form spectacular coral gardens that overlook the infinitely winding coral reefs along the coastline even from above.
Undersea rainforest (infographic/photo)
These colors come from the zooxanthellae parasitic in the body of polyps, and the brilliant combination of the three primary colors is relatively high in brightness and saturation, attracting fish in the deep blue sea. If the beauty of the ocean is silent and flexible, then the beauty of corals is bold and spicy. No matter how many strange colors and strange shapes are combined, they can create a harmonious and atmospheric landscape.
When people begin to explore the unknown world of the seabed, marvel at the rich species of marine life, but also deeply shaken by the strange charm of coral, not inferior to the fragrant flowers on land, some coral species also have a stunning fluorescent effect, so the coral ecosystem is called "underwater tropical rainforest". Button coral is composed of many circular rings, there is one or two background colors in the center of the core, the outer ring is a mixture of green, purple and red, like a coarse woven woolen button; ruby coral is like a mushroom emerging from the forest after heavy rain, the whole body is clear orange-red, and the head has a circle of transparent tentacles; the tube coral is like the sunflower blooming in Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Sky", the transparent tentacles are wrapped in goose-yellow gradient "flower buds", the flower path has a little fluorescence, and it swings slightly on the ink blue seawater canvas The list goes on and on.
The tube star coral resembles a blooming sunflower (infographic/photo)
Because of the wide variety of corals, they can only be divided according to coral group types, such as one of the most common coral groups in China's Silurian family , the cruciferous coral family, with 5 genera and more than 30 species. Its typical representative is the cross coral (stauria), and the biologist Edwards once described the typical characteristics of the cross coral as follows: "The coral body has a developmental next door in the center, extending from the beginning of the individual to the top, and is connected by a flaky partition, arranged in four parts, each part is characterized by an equal number of first-level adjacents. "They are small, convex in the upper part, the edges are flipped upwards, the spacing is large, they belong to the cluster-like possession, and there are generally 2-3 individuals with a diameter of about 3 mm. Different coral groups have different characteristics and complex branches and classifications, such as 1000 species of stony corals, 100 species of black corals, and about 1200 species of horn corals, so it is difficult to summarize them all.
<h3>Dazzling underwater gems</h3>
Colorful corals maintain the basic balance of the ecosystem, but also have a high medicinal value, "Tang Materia Medica" once recorded that peach-colored corals have "sweet taste, flat, non-toxic" attributes, the main functions are to remove the eyes, calm the gods and calm the alarm, "to cure the eyes of the obstacles, shock, spit".
Some of the treasures coral are often regarded as valuable ornaments. Jewelry made of red coral has been excavated in the tombs of ancient Egypt and prehistoric Europe, and it is recorded in the "Etymology" that "red coral is produced in the Mediterranean, with hard bones and delicious colors, which can be used as ornaments." Taking the red coral collection as an example, red corals with the reputation of "red gold" have appeared in various dynasties. The Three Kingdoms Cao Zhi poem said: "The pearl is crossed with jade body, and the wood between corals is difficult." "People see coral as a treasure, and only pearls and jade can match it. Qing Dynasty officials wore a product as expensive, inlaid with red coral, and then according to the grade, they were openwork coral, sapphire and so on. Red coral potted plants are placed in the palace to symbolize "auspicious rui". The emperor would reward the meritorious courtiers with red coral crafts as a sign of honor.
Red coral ornaments with the reputation of "red gold" (infographic/photo)
Coral ornaments were prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, and the poems had clouds: "The guests competed to chant to the bishi, and the beauties drunkenly gave coral noodles." "The hairpins of the ladies are made of coral as raw materials, showing a variety of styles. Ornaments as women can be seen everywhere, which shows the popularity of coral at that time. The Jiaqing Emperor's costume belt in the Forbidden City collection has a dragon pattern gold garden board, inlaid with red coral beads, and the center is engraved with bats, drifting clouds and eight treasures, which symbolize good wishes such as wealth and auspiciousness.
When the royal family wears the imperial dress on a grand occasion, the matching beads must have a string of coral materials, but they are also different according to the different grades, such as the beads hung by the emperor during the sacrifice have 108 round red corals, evenly divided into four equal points to represent the four seasons of "spring, summer, autumn and winter", every 27 will be sandwiched into a lapis lazuli named "Buddha's head" as a sub-bead, the four corners are connected into a tower type, falling on the gemstone, and there are turquoise beads on both sides of the upper, middle and lower troikaga, exquisite and extraordinary.
Nowadays, China has listed red corals as a national-level protected animal, and other countries have also controlled the collection of red corals to varying degrees. At present, the main commodities on the market are mainly leftover old objects, which are popular among collectors because of their unique aesthetic value, exquisite craftsmanship, and extensive collection and preservation space.
Perhaps few people can intuitively feel the importance of corals to the entire human living environment. In addition to its appreciation value, it is a source of income and food for nearly half a billion people. It is also a strong defender, with coral reefs creating breakwaters that protect humanity from the great waves of cyclones.
Corals provide habitat for a wide range of fish (infographic/photo)
Each ecosystem represents a hole card, built into a house of cards. Once there is an ecological problem, if there is no courage to face and bear, and the crises are ignored or abandoned, then more cards will be withdrawn, and perhaps the house will face deconstruction and collapse. People need oxygen, trees, oceans, and without rain and dew, the earth will dry up, and without forests, who can survive in a ashes.