Gulf Of Mexico Reefs Past Present And Future

This volume presents a broad panorama of the current status of research of invertebrate animals considered belonging to the phylum Cnidaria, such as hydra, jellyfish, sea anemone, and coral. In this book the Cnidarians are traced from the Earth’s primordial oceans, to their response to the warming and acidifying oceans. Due to the role of corals in the carbon and calcium cycles, various aspects of cnidarian calcification are discussed. The relation of the Cnidaria with Mankind is approached, in accordance with the Editors’ philosophy of bridging the artificial schism between science, arts and Humanities. Cnidarians' encounters with humans result in a broad spectrum of medical emergencies that are reviewed. The final section of the volume is devoted to the role of Hydra and Medusa in mythology and art.

What do we know about Mediterranean Cold (Deep)-Water coral ecosystems? In this book, specialists offer answers and insights with a series of chapters and short papers about the paleoecology, biology, physiology and ecology of the corals and other organisms that comprise these ecosystems. Structured on a temporal axis—Past, Present and Future—the reviews and selected study cases cover the cold and deep coral habitats known to date in the Mediterranean Basin. This book illustrates and explains the deep Mediterranean coral habitats that might have originated similar thriving ecosystems in today’s Atlantic Ocean.

Cold-water corals form reef structures in continental margin and seamount settings world-wide, making them more wide-spread and abundant than shallow-water reefs. Their role in these ecosystems is no less important than the influence that shallow-water coral reefs have on tropical systems. They create habitat structure, host endemic species, enhance elemental cycling, alter current flow, sequester carbon, and provide many other ecosystem services that we are just beginning to understand. The rapidly evolving state of knowledge of cold-water and deep-sea coral reefs has not been compiled in over 10 years. This volume synthesizes recent and historical information, reveals new findings from reefs that have been discovered only recently, and presents key avenues for future research. We are on the cusp of understanding the critical role that cold-water coral reefs play in the world’s oceans, and this book lays the foundation on which this knowledge will be built in the future.

While artificial reefs may have much to offer, they remain an anecdote in the greater scheme of fisheries management, primarily due to the lack of data specific to validating their use. Based on papers presented at the 9th Conference on Artificial Reefs and Artificial Habitats (CARAH) and also including original articles written for this reference,

Anthropogenic climate change has driven widespread changes in marine environments, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and the formation of hypoxic zones. Such environmental changes would pose direct challenges to the survival and adaptation of aquatic organisms, greatly affecting the biodiversity of marine life and marine ecosystems. Changes in the marine environment are likely to have strong effects at the physiological, behavioral, and molecular levels, with implications at the individual, population, and species levels, resulting in the degradation of genetic resources through massive mortality. For example, the ingestion, digestion, respiration, and growth of aquatic animals were greatly depressed under extreme environments. In the long run, maintaining a sustainable ocean would require a better understanding of the adaptation of marine animals in response to the effects of multiple environmental stressors. The Research Topic is aimed to discuss the potential impacts of individual and compounded extreme environments on aquatic animals, as well as the regulatory mechanisms and adaptation strategies of marine species to cope with these impacts.

This book opens with case studies of reefs in the Red Sea, Caribbean, Japan, Indian Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. A section on microbial ecology and physiology describes the symbiotic relations of corals and microbes, and the microbial role in nutrition or bleaching resistance of corals. Coral diseases are covered in the third part. The volume includes 50 color photos of corals and their environments