What are corals?

Corals are tiny, anemone like animals, which build skeletons of limestone around their bodies to collectively form the largest biogenic (biologically generated) structures on this planet.

Glossary of Terms

Hard Defenses

General term applied to impermeable coastal defense structures of concrete, timber, steel, masonry, etc, which reflect a high proportion of incident wave energy.

Breaker Depth

The still-water depth at the point where a wave breaks. Also called breaking depth.

Intertidal zone (often called littoral zone)

The part of the shoreline that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide.

Nearshore

In beach terminology an indefinite zone extending seaward from the shoreline well beyond the breaker zone.

The zone which extends from the swash zone to the position marking the start of the offshore zone, typically at water depths of the order of 20m.

Coral Bleaching

A phenomenon in which corals under stress (e.g., by elevated water temperature) expel their symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) in large numbers, or the concentration of algal photosynthetic pigments decreases. As a result, the corals' white skeletons show through their tissue and they appear bleached.

Surf Zone

The zone of wave action extending from the water line (which varies with tide, surge, set-up, etc.) out to the most seaward point of the zone (breaker zone) at which waves approaching the coastline commence breaking, typically in water depths of between 5 to 10m.

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What are corals?