Everything about Lophelia Pertusa totally explained
Lophelia pertusa is a species of cold-water
coral which grows in the deep waters throughout the
North Atlantic ocean.
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.
Biology
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 m to over 3000 m depth, but most commonly between 200 m to 1000 m depth, where there's
no sunlight, and a temperature range from about 12 °C to 4 °C.
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 yrs 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 high, be hundreds of metres wide, and the largest recorded reef measures 13 km, 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.
Polyps at the end of branches feed by extending their
tentacles and straining plankton from the seawater. The spring bloom of
phytoplankton and subsequent
zooplankton blooms, provide the main source of nutrient input to the deep sea. This rain of dead plankton is visible on photographs of the seabed and stimulates a seasonal cycle of growth and reproduction in
Lophelia. This cycle is recorded in patterns of growth, and can be studied to investigate
climatic variation in the recent past.
Conservation status
L. pertusa was listed under
CITES Appendix II in January 1990, meaning that the
United Nations Environmental Programme recognizes that this species isn't necessarily currently threatened with
extinction but that it may become so in the future. CITES is technically a means of restricting international trade in endangered species, which isn't a major threat to the survival of
L. pertusa. The
OSPAR Commission for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic have recognised
Lophelia pertusa reefs as a threatened habitat in need of protection.
Main threats come from destruction of reefs by heavy deep-sea
trawl nets, targeting
redfish or
grenadiers. The heavy metal "doors" which hold the mouth of the net open, and the "footline", which is equipped with large metal "rollers", are dragged along the sea bed, and have a highly damaging effect on the coral. Because the rate of growth is so slow, it's unlikely that that this practice will prove to be
sustainable.
In recent years, environmental organisations such as
Greenpeace have argued that exploration for
oil on the north west
continental shelf slopes of Europe should be curtailed due to the possibility that's it damaging to the
Lophelia reefs - conversely,
Lophelia has recently been observed growing on the legs of oil installations.
Ecological significance
Lophelia beds create a specialised habitat favoured by some species of deep water fishes. Surveys have recorded
conger eels,
sharks,
groupers and
hake. The invertebrate community consists of
brittle stars,
molluscs,
amphipods and
crabs. High densities of smaller fish such as
hatchetfish and
lanternfish have been recorded in the waters over
Lophelia beds, indicating they may be important prey items for the larger fish below.
Range
L. pertusa has been reported from
Anguilla,
Bahamas,
Bermuda,
Brazil,
Canada,
Cape Verde,
Colombia,
Cuba,
Ecuador,
France,
French Southern Territories,
Greece,
Grenada,
Iceland,
India,
Ireland,
Italy,
Jamaica,
Japan,
Madagascar,
Mexico,
Montserrat,
Norway,
Portugal,
Puerto Rico,
Saint Helena,
Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Senegal,
South Africa,
United Kingdom,
United States of America,
U.S. Virgin Islands and
Wallis and Futuna Islands.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Lophelia Pertusa'.
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