These are truly amazing inhabitants Our planet is inhabited by the waters of the World Ocean. They chose the seabed as their “home”. Who are we talking about? About corals!
Many will say: how can animals be so similar to plants, and indeed, are corals really animals? Surprisingly, yes, corals are precisely animal organisms, even if they are not similar to the usual representatives of the earth’s fauna.
The correct name for these creatures is coral polyps; there are about 5,000 species of them in the world. The variety of shapes and colors of these animals is simply amazing, just look at these patterned plexuses, it’s just amazingly beautiful!
But let's look at corals from the point of view scientific approach, since these are animals, they must eat, breathe, move, reproduce... let's try to find out how this happens for them.
The structure of these benthic organisms is quite primitive. The body of corals is a cylindrical formation, at the end of which there are numerous tentacles. IN scientific classification The class of Coral polyps is divided into two subclasses: Six-rayed corals and Eight-rayed corals.
This bushy coral is a whole colony of polyps. Hiding among the tentacles of a coral polyp oral cavity. The digestive system of these animals is represented by the “mouth”, pharynx and blind intestinal cavity. It is in the “intestines” of the polyp that there are special cilia, thanks to which the vital processes of the entire organism are carried out.
These same cilia create a constant flow of water in the cavity of the polyp, and with water the animal receives oxygen for breathing, nutrients (the smallest living organisms, small fish and plankton), and also throws waste products back into the body. environment. As you can see: special respiratory organs, sensory organs and excretory organs coral polyps No. What about the ability to move?
Coral polyps can make movements, but not too actively, as far as their skeletal structure allows them. These animals can only slightly bend their body and also move their tentacles.
Sex cells in corals mature not in individual organs, but directly in the body cavity. As you can see, the structure of these animals is quite simple, however, this does not prevent them from leading a full life on seabed.
Coral polyps (when considered as an individual organism) are tiny creatures. One polyp grows in length from several millimeters to one or two centimeters.
But a colony of polyps is already quite great education, visible to our eyes, forming a kind of “bush” growing on the bottom soil. The only exception is, perhaps, the representative of madrepore corals; their body reaches a diameter of up to half a meter.
The skeleton of corals is internal (formed by a special protein) and external (on top it is enveloped with calcium carbonate secreted from the body of the polyp).
If we talk about a colony of coral polyps, then there is a so-called hydroskeleton - this is the water contained in the body cavity of all the “inhabitants of the colony”. Through the common efforts of the cilia of all members of the colony, water constantly circulates through the “common body,” thus maintaining not only the vital activity, but also the shape of the coral polyps.
Most often, corals inhabit warm zones of ocean waters, but there are also individual species, for whom the cold is not terrible. Gersemia is one of these cold-resistant polyps. For normal life, coral polyps only need salty water, if even the slightest desalination occurs in the habitat, this is already destructive for the polyp.
Most of all, these animals love to live in clear and clean water. The habitat depth is generally shallow. Corals prefer good lighting, which is in short supply at great depths. But some species climb greater depth(for example, bathypates lives at a level of 8000 meters from the surface of the water!).
Coral polyps grow very slowly, average speed: from 1 to 3 centimeters per year. Hundreds and even thousands of years pass before reefs and even entire coral islands, known as atolls. By the way, quite recently scientists were 4000 years old! This is a true long-liver of our planet; researchers have never seen another organism like it.
To reproduce, coral polyps use two methods: vegetative and sexual. In the first case, a “daughter” budding from the parent individual occurs, which over time turns into an independent organism. Sexual reproduction occurs during a certain season and only... during the full moon. And there is no mysticism in this, only physics clean water, because during the full moon the strongest tides occur in the oceans, which means the chances of germ cells spreading are much greater.
Corals are valuable organisms, and not only because they are used to make expensive jewelry and decorative items. Coral colonies form entire ecosystems in which many marine animals live and breed.
The most famous “coral giant” in the world is a formation off the coast of Australia, called the Great Barrier Reef, its length is 2,500 kilometers!
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Oral calcium is offered as a panacea, as a cure for many diseases, even if nothing hurts - prevention will not hurt. What exactly is this “unique” substance - coral calcium?
Somehow, an acquaintance of mine who sells measuring instruments said that his store was frequently visited by customers with complaints about the operation of purchased ORP meters (devices that measure the redox potential of a liquid, or, more simply, showing what is more in a solution - oxidizing agents or restorers) and asked for help to figure out what the problem was.
From the beginning I decided that the problem was in the devices. But testing the ORP meters found that they operate within acceptable error limits. Customer complaints about the “improper” operation of the devices began about a month and a half after their purchase.
Over time, it turned out that all the dissatisfied buyers were sellers of dietary supplements and used the purchased devices to demonstrate the “unique qualities” of one new dietary supplement. They added this dietary supplement to regular water, and it reduced its ORP to negative values, that is, in essence, this product contains a certain amount of strong reducing agents. Because ORP meters were regularly used exclusively in a reducing solution, they gradually became dirty and their calibration became blurry. Their sensitivity to reducing agents decreased while their sensitivity to oxidizing agents increased, and the devices ceased to prove the “uniqueness” of dietary supplements during demonstrations. The owner of an ORP meter came to the measuring instrument store, demanded service or replacement of the device, and at the same time, with an unhealthy gleam in his eyes, he talked about a unique dietary supplement - coral calcium.
Oral calcium is offered as a panacea, as a cure for most diseases, even if it doesn’t hurt anywhere, prevention won’t hurt. Moreover, manufacturers point to the prevention of not only diseases, but also aging.
Like most dubious products for health, beauty and longevity, the sale of which is usually based on scientific deception of the client, this dietary supplement is aimed at the alternative medicine market, which easily accepts any product, regardless of its real medicinal qualities. The power of self-hypnosis forces many of us to feel the positive effects of one or another drug, but this happens only due to the placebo effect. Sellers of these types of products convince that they work real miracles: they normalize immune system, increase “energy levels”, slow down or stop the aging process, “saturate the body with ocean energy”...
Coral calcium actually contains ground coral, obtained from pure coral. This substance also contains ascorbic acid and, possibly, other components. This dietary supplement is quite expensive; it is not calcium that is used, but the water into which it is poured or poured. By the way, it just settles at the bottom of the vessel.
Let's look at the arguments from a scientific point of view about the unique properties of coral calcium, which its sellers insist on.
1. The product contains calcium immediately in ionic, biological form - that is, 100% ionic, bioavailable calcium, which, unlike other calcium preparations and even dietary supplements made from other corals, should not be further digested and ionized.
In fact, non-ionized calcium is a metal that does not occur in nature due to its high chemical activity, close to that of sodium: it burns in air and interacts quite violently with water. In its compounds, calcium is already in the ionic form Ca2+, both in chalk or calcium gluconate, and in various minerals. By the way, regular calcium gluconate tablets are much more effective and cheaper than “coral products”.
In corals, calcium is mainly present in the form of carbonate (the substance that marble or chalk is made of). Therefore, such calcium will hardly enter the body, because it (calcium carbonate) is practically insoluble in water. Our regular tap water is just as “effective” in this regard as water that has been treated with coral calcium - remember scale in a kettle.
2. To demonstrate the effect of its drugs, the company uses ORP meters, dark-field microscopes and bioresonance research.
ORP meters have already been discussed above. These devices do not show the effectiveness of the drug, but the presence of oxidizing or reducing agents in the solution.
3. All body fluids (blood, lymph, cellular fluid) should have a weak alkaline reaction, so it is worth drinking slightly alkaline water... coral water is slightly alkaline.
Quite a dubious statement. For certain diseases or syndromes, you can and should drink slightly alkaline water, but it will not affect the pH of the blood. P h of blood, lymph and other body fluids is maintained by buffer systems and regulated by complex physiological mechanisms. Normally, the stomach contains a weak solution of chloride (hydrochloric) acid, which is necessary for normal digestion. If the secretion of gastric juice is normal, then drinking alkaline water will only worsen the digestion of food.
4. An important indicator of water is its redox potential. Water can be a reducing agent and prevent the aging process, or an oxidizing agent and promote aging. Oxidation-reduction potential is measured in millivolts and can have either a positive (oxidizing) or negative (reducing) charge... Coral water's ORP shifts towards negative values, so such water helps improve and restore the body's condition.
In this case, the word “charge” is specifically used, which evokes an association with another miracle product - “charged water”. ORP is the redox potential, which can have different values - both positive and negative.
In addition, it should be noted that water itself is neither an active oxidizing agent nor an active reducing agent. As a rule, ORP solution determines the substances dissolved in water and their concentration. The reducing agent is ascorbic acid, but its content in coral calcium is low, and even 2 teaspoons of pure ascorbic acid per glass of water will not reduce the ORP below +70mV. That is, the “coral concentrate” contains another unknown reducing agent. (Calcium carbonate is not a reducing agent!!!)
I will also add that in scientific literature(where they do not publish experimentally unverified data) there is no evidence that the consumption of reducing agents prevents aging, and oxidizing agents promote it, or that solutions with negative ORP improve the condition of the body.
5. Water is a liquid crystal. Its molecules have a certain orientation in space and have a unique structure. Corals restore disturbances in the liquid crystal structure of water. Since all the water in the body is structured, coral water is especially valuable for maintaining health.
At temperatures close to the freezing point, water molecules do tend to assemble into certain structures due to weak hydrogen bonds. But the further from 0 °C, the smaller these structures are and the faster they are destroyed and new ones are created. Each of these structures exists for less than a microsecond at room temperature. Any statement about changing the structure of pure water to some other structure under normal conditions is flawed and not scientifically proven. The structure of frozen water, that is, ice, largely depends on the presence of both soluble and insoluble impurities in it.
6. Today, it is a scientifically confirmed fact that water perceives and reflects any impact, remembers everything that happens in space. Water only needs to touch a substance to determine its properties and store information in its structure. Unique properties corals erase the negative memory of water and charge it with ocean energy.
I repeat, the statement about the change in the structure of pure water by some other structure that is stable under normal conditions is vicious. There may be a change in the structure of ice obtained by freezing water to which some impurities have been added. Some remnants of such “structure” may be preserved in liquid water at low temperatures (about 0-5 ° C), but given the fact that the temperature of the human body
is 36.6 °C, no “transfer of information” from “structured water” to the body can occur. Therefore, one should not believe that coral calcium actually improves health due to the “structuring” of water and “transfer of information” or in some other magical way.
Prepared by Irina Potanina
When copying, a link is requiredIf you happen to dive on deep sea, then you probably saw bright corals of bizarre shapes there. They look like beautiful living bushes with numerous branches that you will not find in an ordinary garden.
Are corals an animal or a plant? This is the first thought that comes to mind when faced with this a miracle of the sea. For a long time, scientists could not understand what type of organisms corals belong to. Only in 1982 did a French researcher prove that these are not marine plants.
Coral base
They are made up of very small organisms called polyps. This is a class of coelenterate invertebrates that can live either in colonies or alone. Today there are approximately 6,000 species.
These multicellular organisms have appeared since the time of ancient mammoths. They have only one cavity - the intestines, with the help of which food is digested. Hence their name - coelenterates. Therefore, there is no dispute about whether corals are an animal or a plant. Polyps may have different sizes- from a millimeter to several centimeters.
There are also huge ones - half a meter in diameter. These include representatives of the madrepore species. From numerous polyps emerges one large organism that resembles a huge bush, attracting the attention of divers.
Polyp structure and nutrition
It is quite primitive and resembles a cylinder with tentacles. Some polyps have a skeleton that is made of calcium. Not all polyps can move along the seabed. Only their tentacles bend, helping to obtain food. How does this happen? The coral tentacles pull small fish and shrimp into their nets.
In the intestinal cavity, the polyp has cilia that create water flow. Thanks to it, oxygen and food enter the body. We hope we have answered the question of whether corals are an animal or a plant.
Dimensions and shape
The rich variety of wonderful living organisms knows no bounds. The smallest coral reefs can be several centimeters in length, the largest reach a height of more than 5 meters! Their shape can be very diverse: in the form of a twig, a curved hook, a barrel, a feather, or even in the form of a household item.
There are also more complex corals that resemble a fan, bird, or animal in appearance. Some colonies grow upward, others wider. They often look like spread out colorful carpets. What types of corals are there? Their colors are very different - shades of red, black, pink, green. Corals of blue and purple colors are quite rare.
The peculiarities of coral polyps are such that they are found only in tropical and subtropical waters. Some species live in polar seas in the north. For example, Gersemia. Another noteworthy thing is that all corals live mainly in salty, clean waters.
Many types of corals prefer to live at shallow depths, which are well illuminated by daylight. This is due to the fact that this living organism lives in collaboration with algae, which need light for photosynthesis. What types of corals are there? The most famous are porite, mushroom-shaped, and black. There are about 400 species of corals in the Great Barrier Reef alone!
Deep polyps
These include curved corals called bathypates. They can be found at depths of over 8000 meters! Colonies appear only at the bottom of the solid substance. Also excellent habitats for them are sunken ships, airplanes, and underwater structures.
Deep-sea corals prefer a sessile lifestyle. Some of them can move along the seabed, but very slowly. Despite the fact that the structure of corals is primitive, they have complex biological rhythms.
Most often, this unusual organism behaves actively at night. Corals throw out their tentacles like nets and wait for food. With the onset of dawn, the polyps shrink and prefer to be at rest.
Coral propagation
Scientists believe that this marine organism can reproduce both vegetatively and sexually. Amazing ability, isn't it? Vegetative consists of fragmentation and then separation of the “child” from the parent polyp.
Typically, a coral forms a small “plate” on its leg, which then detaches and takes root at the bottom of the sea soil. The sexual method suggests that the corals must be male and female. This is not observed in all polyps. Reproduction in this case occurs as follows: during fertilization, sperm penetrate the gastric cavity. Then they go outside and find themselves in the mouth area of the female polyp.
Cell division occurs traditionally. As a result embryonic development Small larvae are formed, which then swim freely in the water. Such information should dispel doubts among those people who still have not found a clear answer to the question of whether corals are an animal or a plant.
A little about the benefits
Corals delight the eye with their unusual appearance, but this is not their only advantage. They are actually builders marine ecosystem. Moreover, they organize it without unnecessary fuss. By forming colonies, they provide a roof over the heads of various sea inhabitants, such as: eels, stingrays, sea stars and various fish.
Jewelers claim that marine polyps are an excellent material for making various products. It is known that in ancient times coral necklaces were hung around the necks of small children to promote better teeth growth. It was also believed that seafood helps in difficult situations. Therefore, they were used as an amulet that could protect against the evil eye and give strength in difficult situations. Traditional healers believe that corals regulate metabolism, have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, and improve memory.
In conclusion, I would like to note that corals belong to the animal world and you can tell a lot of interesting things about them.
A small group of scientists is fighting to save one of the planet's most fragile resources: coral reefs. Although they look like rock structures on the ocean floor, they are actually living organisms that are important to the ocean ecosystem.
These wonderful organisms can also keep secrets for the salvation of humanity. Many pharmaceuticals are made from tropical plants. Scientists believe that reefs can also be used in medicine. There are already several medications in late stage research. They can be used in cancer treatment, hormone therapy and for the production of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Human influence on corals can lead to negative consequences. According to rough estimates, about 10% of coral reefs have already died. In addition, about 60% are at risk of extinction due to factors such as global warming.
The reef near Key Lagro (Florida) is the third largest (after Australia and Bali). However, he is not as healthy as he might seem at first glance. Fishing tourism and general pollution are destroying it. That is why it was declared a no-tourism zone. A special commission appointed a patrol to protect this place from trespassers. Airplanes also work together with boats. Aerial reconnaissance very effective in catching poachers.
Security can only protect. And in order to save, it takes time. A special group of scientists led by the University of North Carolina has settled in an underwater structure, where they conduct laboratory experiments literally a few meters from the reef. During ten-day shifts, four scientists and two assistants live in a room that is no larger than a bus. There are all life support systems that help scientists live underwater, studying the features of the underwater world and ways to save the coral reef.
These people live in the most difficult conditions. At lunch they eat just enough so as not to die. The pressure is adjusted by team members to avoid oversaturation of the blood with nitrogen. However, there are great benefits to this lifestyle. Thanks to him, they have as much as 9 hours a day to be near the reef. In addition, constant proximity allows for quick access to the reef. Some experiments could not be performed from the surface.
One of the most beautiful moments that can be observed is called coral spawning. This happens 1-2 times a year when they release great amount gametes into the water. This is a very beautiful sight. Understanding how coral reefs reproduce can help repair damage.
The destruction of coral reefs may be even more dangerous than the decline tropical forests. New trees can be planted, but corals cannot. In addition, they grow very slowly - about three millimeters per year. It's hard to say how many secrets will be learned before scientists can recover them. In the meantime, the creation of the reserve is the first the right step on security.
For more than 250 million years, coral reefs have been successful and resilient organisms - the coral reefs themselves are proof of this - of impressive size. Now the violations in biological processes these creatures lead to a gradual depletion and destruction of coral ecosystems around the world.
Coral reefs are the world's largest structures created naturally living beings.
In addition to industrial pollution, reefs are being hampered by rising ocean temperatures, overfishing, increasing amounts of sediment and acid concentrations, as well as oxygen deficiency and the emergence of new disease vectors. 
Separately from each other, these problems would not be so critical - but the interaction of many negative factors at once leads to disastrous results. Today it is known that 20% of the world's coral reefs are already extinct, and that if the situation does not change, then in the near future the Earth will lose another 24%.
Like rain forests, reefs are home to many biological species, and the destruction (disappearance) of these ecosystems leads to terrifying declines in the populations of a wide variety of living beings. For now it’s even hard to imagine. Many people, however, still do not understand that corals are very important for maintaining balance in marine life.
The extinction of coral reefs around the world is due in part to the fact that toxic algae are multiplying more and more due to overfishing of the fish that feed on them, according to an article by researchers published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 
Researchers say different algae have different toxicity to corals, and the worst was Chlorodesmis fastigiata, or "turtle grass." It is unlikely that algae created their own chemical weapon against corals: they needed poisonous terpenes in order to protect themselves from fish. Indeed, most fish species ignore these algae, with the exception of chimeras.
Where they are given complete freedom, algae occupy 60% of the bottom surface and, if left unchecked, they may well completely displace corals. So to common problems coral reefs - warming and water pollution and intensive fishing, and the war with aggressor algae is also added.
Coral reefs are playing important role in maintaining ecological and climatic balance throughout the planet. They concentrate carbonates, and therefore carbon. Tons of coral reefs sequester many tons of carbon. A temperature regime on the planet depends on the ratio of atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon dissolved in the World Ocean. That's why mass death corals will undoubtedly lead to an increase in carbon concentrations in the water, and, accordingly, climate change.
Coral reefs attract tourists and thereby support the economies of small states and provide natural protection from hurricanes and tsunamis and support the existence of fisheries: for all key commercial fish species, coral colonies provide habitat and a source of food. The economies of many small islands are holding up exclusively on corals.
Death of coral reefs, loss of biodiversity due to invasion invasive species, the spread of “dead zones” of seas and oceans, toxic algae blooms, depletion of fish stocks - all this is now on the rise. The planet has a lot of problems. Sea life dying faster than the most pessimistic forecast predicted just a couple of years ago. This process will affect the lives of all inhabitants of the planet.
“Even though corals rely heavily on algae for food, they may not be aware of their presence,” says zoology professor Virginia Weis. “We think this is what happens when the water gets too hot or something else disturbs the coral - communication from the algae to the coral is disrupted and the message that all is well is no longer transmitted, and the algae come out of their shelters and stumble to the immune response from corals."
"Between 40% and 70% of the algae we studied are killing corals. We don't know exactly how significant this problem is compared to other causes of coral loss around the world, but it is getting worse over time. For reefs already damaged by overfishing or other type of activity, the presence of algae may indicate impossibility of natural recovery at all", said Professor Mark Hay, lead author of the study, as quoted by the press service of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States.
“They opened up to us a long time ago general principles life activity of corals, and the problems they faced due to climate change, says Professor Weiss. – Until recently, little was known about their biological structure at the fundamental scientific level, as well as about their genome structure and internal communication. Only if we truly understand how their physiology works will we know whether they can adapt to climate change and whether there is anything we can do to help them.”
"Reducing the number of fish that eat algae causes a cascade of negative effects. The more fish you catch, the more algae grows in the coral reefs, the more damage is done to the corals and the fewer they become over time. The fewer corals, the less attractive the reef becomes for fish is a twisting death spiral, the movement along which is difficult to reverse,” said Professor Mark Hay, USA.
Coral Rescue
There is a possibility that diving may be banned in Thailand in order to restore dying corals. Specialists from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources of Thailand submitted a petition to the government of the country to close a number of popular areas for diving national parks Surin and Similan, which are located near the resort island of Phuket.
Malaysia – the best place for diving in the world. But even here in Lately About 90% of local coral reefs were damaged, leading to coral bleaching and resulting in harsh government measures. About a dozen diving clubs across the country have already been closed.
Although coral bleaching occurs primarily due to rising temperatures, it also human factor, namely touching corals, is also dangerous during the bleaching process.
Caribbean coral extinction
A little-studied disease has decimated coral reefs Caribbean, weakened due to too much warming over last years water. According to scientists, the “white plague” pandemic will lead to an almost complete change in the ecosystem of the world’s oceans.
Explorers of the underwater world Caribbean Sea specialists were faced with the fact of an unprecedented scale of coral death. In just three to four months, about a third of the coral colonies located in official control sites near Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands died.
Corals grow very slowly, so any large-scale losses for them are irreparable.
A new study has found that the decline of coral reefs in the Caribbean is directly linked to the growth of human populations, Science Daily reports. It was found that the higher the population density living near reefs, the higher the mortality rate of corals. Neighborhood with humans also negatively affects the number of fish.
Calcite or aragonite?
Scientists have proven that growing corals build their skeleton depending on the composition surrounding water.
Aragonite.
Corals can “switch” their composition from calcite to aragonite. This ability manifested itself under conditions when the composition of magnesium in the water decreased (which should be part of the first mineral) and the level of calcium (which should be part of the second) increased.
It turned out that corals growing in water corresponding to older stages geological history, consisted mainly of calcite, and currently - of aragonite.
It was also discovered that corals in “ancient” water developed much more slowly than those in “modern” water, writes the All-Russian Ecological Portal.
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