Preface
From navigational hazards in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to enigmatic scientific features in the
nineteenth century, coral reefs over the last 100 years
have not only been understood in greater detail but also
have provided evidence of macroscale geological processes such as plate tectonics. Charles Darwin’s 1842
book based on his 1831–1836 circum global voyage of
exploration on HMS Beagle strongly focused the interests
of science on coral reefs. Interestingly, his ideas of subsiding foundations were developed whilst in South America
and before he had seen a coral reef in the field. However,
his work promoted both supportive hypotheses and alternatives which included ideas on glacial sea-level control,
antecedent platforms, and other ideas which were very
much more divorced from field observation than those of
Darwin himself, who, in the fourth chapter of his book
develops the biological aspects of his theory and the various conditions under which corals can grow.
The ideas, together with his oft quoted wish,
that some doubly rich millionaire would take into his head to
have borings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls,
and bring home cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or
600 feet
were a forecast of the way coral reef research would travel
in the twentieth century. Although many hypotheses have
been applied to all scales of reefal features and processes,
hypotheses testing is now expected, and with this has
come the development of research tools such as survey
techniques like aerial photography and satellite imagery.
The first views of coral reefs from the sky opened up
whole new dimensions and directly aided the field-based
study of coral reefs, to the same extent that the laboratory
analysis such as palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, has
in more recent times.
The understanding of how small polyps can construct
enormous coral reefs more than 100 km
2 is of central
interest to earth scientists but is just as much the area
of many other fields of science. The breakdown of
boundaries around the traditional fields of science is a
developing theme of the twenty-first century and is no
more so than in the study of coral reefs. Corals were initially thought to be plants until the work of André de
Peysonnel (1727) although it took another 24 years for
the Royal Society of London to accept them as animals.
Coral reefs are the largest structures on earth built by a
combination of plants and animals and inevitably they have
become the major focus of research for zoologists, botanists, and ecologists. It is impossible to study reefs without
input of ideas from these disciplines. However, almost
every facet of earth science – geology, geography, geomorphology, sedimentology, oceanography, palaeontology,
tectonics, etc. – contributes to the understanding of coral
reefs and is included in this encyclopedia. The purpose of
the encyclopedia is to promote interdisciplinary research
and to help in the communication between earth science
and other disciplines by providing a window onto the
approaches of earth science to coral reefs and giving other
disciplines an understanding of the way corals are viewed
by the earth science community. As editor of this volume,
I see any way that brings the diverse range of disciplines
closer together and understanding each other’s knowledge
as highly productive. However, it is hoped that within the
volume there will also be much to help other earth scientists. Every attempt has been made to make the entries as
authoritative and up-to-date as possible with latest reference
lists and a range of cross-references which will help in the
navigation of this volume.
Why the title – Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs –
Structure, Form and Process? Again, to some extent, it is
to make it attractive to multidisciplinary readers.
“Cainozoic” or “Quaternary” could have been used but
the technical terms may have made it less attractive to
other disciplines. Also, modern coral reefs have
a continuous lineage with the earliest Palaeozoic reefs,
hence the few entries which cover earlier reefs and their
influence on today’s living reefs in the volume. Structure,
From navigational hazards in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to enigmatic scientific features in the
nineteenth century, coral reefs over the last 100 years
have not only been understood in greater detail but also
have provided evidence of macroscale geological processes such as plate tectonics. Charles Darwin’s 1842
book based on his 1831–1836 circum global voyage of
exploration on HMS Beagle strongly focused the interests
of science on coral reefs. Interestingly, his ideas of subsiding foundations were developed whilst in South America
and before he had seen a coral reef in the field. However,
his work promoted both supportive hypotheses and alternatives which included ideas on glacial sea-level control,
antecedent platforms, and other ideas which were very
much more divorced from field observation than those of
Darwin himself, who, in the fourth chapter of his book
develops the biological aspects of his theory and the various conditions under which corals can grow.
The ideas, together with his oft quoted wish,
that some doubly rich millionaire would take into his head to
have borings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls,
and bring home cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or
600 feet
were a forecast of the way coral reef research would travel
in the twentieth century. Although many hypotheses have
been applied to all scales of reefal features and processes,
hypotheses testing is now expected, and with this has
come the development of research tools such as survey
techniques like aerial photography and satellite imagery.
The first views of coral reefs from the sky opened up
whole new dimensions and directly aided the field-based
study of coral reefs, to the same extent that the laboratory
analysis such as palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, has
in more recent times.
The understanding of how small polyps can construct
enormous coral reefs more than 100 km
2 is of central
interest to earth scientists but is just as much the area
of many other fields of science. The breakdown of
boundaries around the traditional fields of science is a
developing theme of the twenty-first century and is no
more so than in the study of coral reefs. Corals were initially thought to be plants until the work of André de
Peysonnel (1727) although it took another 24 years for
the Royal Society of London to accept them as animals.
Coral reefs are the largest structures on earth built by a
combination of plants and animals and inevitably they have
become the major focus of research for zoologists, botanists, and ecologists. It is impossible to study reefs without
input of ideas from these disciplines. However, almost
every facet of earth science – geology, geography, geomorphology, sedimentology, oceanography, palaeontology,
tectonics, etc. – contributes to the understanding of coral
reefs and is included in this encyclopedia. The purpose of
the encyclopedia is to promote interdisciplinary research
and to help in the communication between earth science
and other disciplines by providing a window onto the
approaches of earth science to coral reefs and giving other
disciplines an understanding of the way corals are viewed
by the earth science community. As editor of this volume,
I see any way that brings the diverse range of disciplines
closer together and understanding each other’s knowledge
as highly productive. However, it is hoped that within the
volume there will also be much to help other earth scientists. Every attempt has been made to make the entries as
authoritative and up-to-date as possible with latest reference
lists and a range of cross-references which will help in the
navigation of this volume.
Why the title – Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs –
Structure, Form and Process? Again, to some extent, it is
to make it attractive to multidisciplinary readers.
“Cainozoic” or “Quaternary” could have been used but
the technical terms may have made it less attractive to
other disciplines. Also, modern coral reefs have
a continuous lineage with the earliest Palaeozoic reefs,
hence the few entries which cover earlier reefs and their
influence on today’s living reefs in the volume. Structure,