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Ocean Portal by The Smithsonian Institution

Coral Reefs

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BLOG POST Making Science Sing: The Longest Time (Coral Triangle Edition) How do you make science sing? Just ask a couple of female scientists to sing about their research interests and their passion is quickly conveyed in a quirky little tune. Informative, inspir...MORE STORIES


	IMAGE GALLERY MORE GALLERIES Two Views of Coral Reefs: Thriving and Threatened Coral reefs are beautiful, vibrant ecosystems that house roughly one quarter of...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Hotspot of Biodiversity We have arrived as the advanced scouting party to the scene of this year's field...
	IMAGE GALLERY MORE GALLERIES Will Coral Reefs Survive Acidification? Nestled among the beautiful coral reefs of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a place tha...

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LATEST TODAY'S CATCH


					A School of Hawaiian Squirrelfish Apr 10, 2013 - 9:03AMCheck out the eyes on these Hawaiian squirrelfish (Sargocentron xantherythrum)! Because squirrelfish are almost entirely nocturnal, they need big eyes to absorb as much moonlight and starlight as they can in the dark. During the...

From Sea Sponge to HIV Medicine

Mar 26, 2013 - 9:40AM

Tectitethya crypta (formerly known as Cryptotheca crypta) is a large,...

Coral Spawning

Mar 15, 2013 - 9:07AM

Corals are sedentery animals, so how do they reproduce? One way is sexually...

SPOTLIGHT


Corals and Coral Reefs Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems. They teem with life, with perhaps one quarter of all ocean...

Primnoid Coral Jul 27 2011 - 10:49am The branches of a primnoid coral in the genus Calyptrophora provide a habitat for galathaoid crabs. Learn more about the deep-sea coral reefs in our Deep-sea Corals article.	Cauliflower Coral - Pocillopora Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This piece of pocillopora, or cauliflower coral, would normally have a rigid outer skeleton, but researchers dissolved it to expose the coral’s tissue and take a sample for DNA analysis. Read more about the Moorea Biocode Project which is using DNA analysis to track the marine biodiveristy of the...
Aleutian Coral Reef Jun 6 2011 - 10:21am Several species of deep-sea corals form a garden 165 m (540 ft) below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Explore more in the multimedia feature "Coral Gardens of the Deep Sea."	A Rainbow of Crocheted Corals Oct 14 2010 - 11:30pm Visitors to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef temporary exhibit at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History saw both the main installation created by to the Institute For Figuring and the stunning Smithsonian Community Reef created by local crafters.
Amy Baco-Taylor, Deep-Sea Coral Scientist Jul 27 2011 - 10:44am Dr. Amy Baco-Taylor dives to deep-sea environments to study corals and the invertebrates that live in them.	Sea Anemone Jan 26 2010 - 11:46am If you don’t like purple, you can look for this anemone (Condylactis sp.) in green. It comes in different colors and brightens a variety of Caribbean reef habitats, from lagoons to deeper waters.
Bamboo Coral Jun 7 2011 - 12:57pm This 200-year-old bamboo coral colony is growing on the Davidson Seamount off the coast of California. The skeleton of this deep-sea coral has bamboo-like segments. See more pictures of coral in our Deep-sea Corals article.	Dead Man’s Fingers Nov 2 2012 - 11:06am Dead man’s fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) are soft corals named for their appendage-like appearance when thrown ashore by storms. The finger-like clumps of coral polyps come in various shades of pink, orange, white, grey, or yellow and are found along the northern Atlantic coasts of Europe and North...
Lophelia Pertusa Coral Polyps Jul 27 2011 - 9:27am Deep-sea corals scientist Dr. J. Murray Roberts photographed these living polyps from the Mingulay Reef Complex off Scotland in aquaria in 2010.	Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems Aug 28 2012 - 9:17am The Census of Marine Life brought together coral reef scientists from around the world to learn more about the biodiversity of the world's reefs and to develop new methods of measuring that diversity. Two major outcomes of the coral reef project of the Census are the methodolgies for standardized...
The Island of Moorea Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am On Moorea, an island in French Polynesia, researchers are striving to complete a biocode—a DNA catalog of every life form big enough to pick up with tweezers.	The Moorea Biocode Project Nov 11 2009 - 5:48pm Scientists on the tiny island of Moorea, in the Pacific, are gathering one of every life form large enough to pick up with tweezers. They're on a quest to build a detailed catalog of the entire ecosystem. Learn more about the island and the research being done there in our Casting a Wide Net...
Scuba Diving Course a Success for IBRC Students Jun 15 2012 - 9:58am For the past week, the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC) diving class of 2012 has seen countless fish in shades of pink, blue, yellow, red, and green darting through corals and the overhangs of a shipwreck. They witnessed stunning bioluminescent plankton flash like fireflies in the...	Deep-Sea Corals Worldwide Jun 7 2011 - 9:14am This map shows where some of the most significant species of deep-sea corals are located. Learn more about the distribution and ecology of deep ocean corals in the article "Coral Gardens of the Deep Sea."
Shallow Coral Reef Foraminifers Jan 24 2013 - 10:32am In this photo of a shallow coral reef in the Pacific there are three species of forams. On the left, Peneroplis planatus. In the center, Amphistegina lessonii. And on the right, Laevipeneroplis sp. Their colors come from the symbiotic algae that live inside the foram shells.	Studying Deep-Sea Corals Jun 9 2011 - 9:23am What happens to deep-sea coral samples after they are collected? In this image gallery, see some of the ways ocean scientists sort, measure, photograph, and study them. Learn more in the multimedia feature "Coral Gardens of the Deep Sea."