Overview
- A general book on the history of corals over the last 540 million years
- Includes descriptions with special reference to chemical proxies for reconstructing environmental parameters
- Describes the future of coral reefs in the current context of global warming
Part of the book series: Coral Reefs of the World (CORW, volume 16)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
The health status and future of tropical coral reefs, as tourist destinations, are regularly subjected to media coverage. Many documentaries recognize the natural beauty and biological richness of the Australian Great Barrier Reef and French Polynesian lagoons, but point to the equally significant risk that would result from current global warming and human-made hazards. The future of coral reefs is usually a matter of death foretold, real or purely imaginary. In this context, it has become necessary to differentiate between what is falling within reality of scientific facts or fantasy. To this end, the present general review, in the expert translation of Charlotte Fontan aims at: (1) defining the conditions and life requirements of reefbuilding corals; (2) the history of corals along with that of a number of associated, skeletal organisms involved in reef building since the very beginning, i.e. the last 540 million years, including the ups and downs they have experienced; (3) giving special reference to the development patterns of recent and modern reefs; (4) projecting corals and reefs into a still unknown future. Understanding how corals and reefs have originated, how they have been able to face the major biological crises which have punctuated the Earth’s history, how they have survived is a prerequisite to better gain a significant picture of their future.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Lucien F. Montaggioni is a professor emeritus at Aix-Marseille université. His skills refer to sedimentology and palaeoecology of coral reefs and shallow-water carbonate platforms, from the Oligo-Miocene to Recent, in relation to palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. His research has focused on systems from islands in the Western Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Australia, Myanmar, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Corals and Reefs
Book Subtitle: From the Beginning to an Uncertain Future
Authors: Bertrand Martin-Garin, Lucien F. Montaggioni
Series Title: Coral Reefs of the World
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16887-1
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16886-4Published: 25 February 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16889-5Published: 26 February 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-16887-1Published: 24 February 2023
Series ISSN: 2213-719X
Series E-ISSN: 2213-7203
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 166
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations, 117 illustrations in colour
Topics: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology