[Coral-List] Fwd: Has the death of the Great Barrier Reef been greatly, exaggerated??

[Douglas Fenner]

Vassil,
    Good point.  I was referring to a (more or less) solid carbonate
structure, built by coral reef organisms, independent of whether it has
living corals on it or not, or whether it was under water or not, or
whether it was old enough to be called a fossil reef or not.  I was trying
to make the point that the carbonate structure and the living ecosystem on
it are two very different (though interrelated) things, and we (myself
included) often use terms like "coral reef" which don't distinguish which
we are talking about, and I think we would do well to make that clear which
one we are talking about each time we refer to them.  In some places one
exists without the other, the processes involved in producing or destroying
them are very different, and the time scales involved are very different,
much shorter for the ecosystem than for the geological structure.
 Cheers, Doug

On Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 8:58 AM, Vassil Zlatarski <vzlatarski at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Doug,
>
> Frequently used terms are: "reef", "coral reef/ecosystem", "living coral
> reef/ecosystem", "dead coral reef/ecosystem", "fossil coral
> reef/ecosystem".  What is the geological meaning of "geological coral
> reefs" used in your posting.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Vassil
>
> Vassil Zlatarski
> D.Sc. (Biology), Ph.D. (Geology)
>
>
>