COSEE Ocean Systems: News
Nature's tiny engineers
Description: Conventional wisdom has long held that corals - whose calcium-carbonate skeletons form the foundation of coral reefs - are passive organisms that rely entirely on ocean currents to deliver dissolved substances, such as nutrients and oxygen. But now scientists have found that they are far from passive, engineering their environment to sweep water into turbulent patterns that greatly enhance their ability to exchange nutrients and dissolved gases with their environment. [Source: MIT News]
URL: http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/corals-engineers-0901
Availability: Full Text
Source: MIT News
Publish Date: 9/1/2014
Reading Level: Basic
Page Length:  

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