[Coral-List] are coral inhabited waters oligotrophic anymore?

shashank Keshavmurthy iamshanky15 at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 10 04:53:00 EDT 2007


Dear Listers
I would like to know if it is still okay to use
the word oligotrophic when describing coral reefs
and coral communities....

It is a known fact, but the over the decades are
there any reefs left, that are still
oligotrophic?....since there are so many sites
where the nutrient mediated changes in the coral
health is occurring....

So shouldn't we stop describing the coral
reefs/communities as oligotrophic?

I say this becasue, the word oligotrophic = less
nutrients and clean water === in simple words. So
when people who are not involved in coral
research read about coral reefs describing them
as oligotrophic, they will always think that
there no problem. 

This is true in all the coral related
publications including reference and  text books.
 On one hand publications introduce coral
reefs/communities as oligotrophic and on the
other hand problems like nutrient enrichment is
described as one of the problems resulting in
coral decline.

This is confusing for a reader I think....

So, my question..is it okay to attach the word
oligotrophic whenever we describe or introduce
coral reefs/communities.

Regards
Shashank

"Role of Infinitely Small in Nature is Infinitely Large" - Louis Pasteur
====================================
Keshavmurthy Shashank
Research Student, Graduate School of Kuroshio Science
Laboratory of Environmental Conservation
Kochi University, Monobe Campus, B 200
Nankoku, Kochi, 783-8502, Japan
Mobile: 81 08039253889
My WebPage: http://web.mac.com/coralresearch/iWeb/shashank/Welcome.html


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