SYLLABUS SECTION: GS3 (BIODIVERSITY)

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Scientists have discovered four species of corals recorded for the first time from Indian waters.

MORE DETAILS:

• Azooxanthellate, new species of corals were discover in the waters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• According to Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) said that all four groups of corals are from the same family, Flabellidae.
• Truncatoflabellum crassum, T. incrustatum, T. aculeatum and T. irregulare under the family Flabellidae was earlier found in Japan, the Philippines and Australian waters, and only T. crassum was found in the Indo-West Pacific region.

AZOOXANTHELLATE CORALS

• The azooxanthellate corals are a group of corals that do not contain zooxanthellae and derive nourishment from capturing different forms of planktons and not from the sun.
• Azooxanthellate corals are not restricts to shallow waters.
• They live in the vast expanse of the ocean depths where there is less competition for space.
• These corals are not limits by light or by temperature.
• These are a group of hard corals | CORALS RECORDED FROM INDIAN WATERS.

CORALS REEFS

• Corals are nothing but calcareous rocks, form from the skeletons of minute sea animals, calls polyps.
• The polyps extract calcium salts from seawater to form hard skeletons which protect their soft bodies. These skeletons give rise to corals.
• The corals live in colonies fastened to the rocky seafloor. New generations develop on skeletons of dead polyps. The tubular skeletons grow upwards and outwards as a cemented calcareous rocky mass collectively called corals.
• The shallow rock create by these depositions is calls reef. These reefs, later on, evolve into islands.
• The corals Occur in different forms and colours, depending upon the nature of salts or constituents they are made of.

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SOURCE: THE HINDU