THE EXOLOOY OF CORAL REEFS
21 1
Historically, the scientific study of coral reefs begins with the work
of D m . I n a centennial survey of his work this author was impressed by the paucity of Darwin’s personal contacts with reefs. While
on the Beagle he ‘ I had viewed atolls and barrier reefs from afar in the
Pacific ; he had examined one atoll with some care in the Indian Ocean
where he had also viewed the fringing reef at Mauritius. He had ueen
living corals of many types and obtained some impression of their
distribution in depth and also in relation to exposure on windward and
leeward surfaces. And he had obtained some information, not all of it,
as it eventually turned out, correct, about the submarine contours of
coral reefs” (Yonge, 1958a). It was on the soundness of Darwin’s
observations on the distribution in depth and on the growth in exposure
and shelter of living corals (coupled, of course, with his appreciation of
the possibility of widespread subsidence) that the fundamental soundness of his conclusions rests. Hence a modern definition of a coral reef,
such as that given by Wells (1957), represents essentially no more than
an amplification of Darwin’s original description.
In later nineteenth century and early twentieth century work on
coral reefs, based largely on geographical surveys of reefs and subsequent museum description of coral skeletons, the living animal was
largely overlooked. The geologist, T. Way land Vaughan, in association
with A. G. Mayor, was the first to study corals in relation to their
environment and largely in the then recently established Tortugas
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. His survey of
this work in his I‘ Corals and the Formation of Coral Reefs ” (1919) may
be regarded as the starting point in the modern study of living hermatypic corals. Undoubtedly, work had been hampered by lack of marine
laboratories within coral reef areas. Ikttwrtm t h r Firfit, m r j H w : r w l
World Wars this WaN partly made good ~ J Y
t h : r:stlitili~hmcnt of& h J t c : h
Laboratory at Batavia from which invcfitigations were conductcd on
reefs throughout the East Indies, by the work of the Great Barrier Reef
Expedition which, in 1928 to 1929, established a marine laboratory for
13 months at Low Isles, N. Queensland, and by the foundation by the
Japanese in 1935 of the Palao Tropical Biological Station with a reeearch
programme based largely on the results of the Great Barrier Reef
Expedition and so primarily biological. Meanwhile, the Tortugaa
Laboratory was opened for 3 summer months annually although work
on corals diminished. Corals were little studied at the Bermuda
Laboratory, admittedly at the northern limit of coral growth although,
despite similar limitations, at Hawaii much valuable work came from
the largely unaided efforts of C. H. Edmondson.
In this author’s account of “ The Biology of Coral Reefs ” which
15
21 1
Historically, the scientific study of coral reefs begins with the work
of D m . I n a centennial survey of his work this author was impressed by the paucity of Darwin’s personal contacts with reefs. While
on the Beagle he ‘ I had viewed atolls and barrier reefs from afar in the
Pacific ; he had examined one atoll with some care in the Indian Ocean
where he had also viewed the fringing reef at Mauritius. He had ueen
living corals of many types and obtained some impression of their
distribution in depth and also in relation to exposure on windward and
leeward surfaces. And he had obtained some information, not all of it,
as it eventually turned out, correct, about the submarine contours of
coral reefs” (Yonge, 1958a). It was on the soundness of Darwin’s
observations on the distribution in depth and on the growth in exposure
and shelter of living corals (coupled, of course, with his appreciation of
the possibility of widespread subsidence) that the fundamental soundness of his conclusions rests. Hence a modern definition of a coral reef,
such as that given by Wells (1957), represents essentially no more than
an amplification of Darwin’s original description.
In later nineteenth century and early twentieth century work on
coral reefs, based largely on geographical surveys of reefs and subsequent museum description of coral skeletons, the living animal was
largely overlooked. The geologist, T. Way land Vaughan, in association
with A. G. Mayor, was the first to study corals in relation to their
environment and largely in the then recently established Tortugas
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. His survey of
this work in his I‘ Corals and the Formation of Coral Reefs ” (1919) may
be regarded as the starting point in the modern study of living hermatypic corals. Undoubtedly, work had been hampered by lack of marine
laboratories within coral reef areas. Ikttwrtm t h r Firfit, m r j H w : r w l
World Wars this WaN partly made good ~ J Y
t h : r:stlitili~hmcnt of& h J t c : h
Laboratory at Batavia from which invcfitigations were conductcd on
reefs throughout the East Indies, by the work of the Great Barrier Reef
Expedition which, in 1928 to 1929, established a marine laboratory for
13 months at Low Isles, N. Queensland, and by the foundation by the
Japanese in 1935 of the Palao Tropical Biological Station with a reeearch
programme based largely on the results of the Great Barrier Reef
Expedition and so primarily biological. Meanwhile, the Tortugaa
Laboratory was opened for 3 summer months annually although work
on corals diminished. Corals were little studied at the Bermuda
Laboratory, admittedly at the northern limit of coral growth although,
despite similar limitations, at Hawaii much valuable work came from
the largely unaided efforts of C. H. Edmondson.
In this author’s account of “ The Biology of Coral Reefs ” which
15