Coral reefs aren’t only considered just beautiful ocean ecosystems but they also protect our courses from storm surge, generate billions of tourists and fishing dollars each year and support a huge number of marine species. 

They can live and grow throughout all the oceans around the world. Learn with us about the three main types of coral reefs.

Three Main Types of Coral Reefs

The three main types of coral reefs are:

• Fringing reefs.
• Barrier reefs.
• Atolls.

All these types of coral reefs require specific conditions to develop. If we want to talk briefly about coral reefs’ formation, we can say that they begin to form when coral larvae attach to a rock or any submerged object then the corals grow over a long period until they turn into a reef.

Fringing Reefs

You can find fringing reefs growing near the coastline around continents and Islands. This is the most common type and the youngest of the three main types of coral reefs.

There are shallow lagoons which separate fringing reefs from the shore. They begin to form when the Coral larvae attach it to rocks or soil near the coasts. Because they are formed from the shallow sloped walls, they are usually formed where volcanoes have appeared.

The second step is that the larvae turn into polyps and excrete calcium carbonate which is needed for their exoskeleton’s formation. Calcium carbonate sediments on the rocks and acts as a substrate where can more polyps attach. Over time, more polyps attach and create layers which create coral reefs at the end.

Calcarious Algae also play a role in the formation of coral reefs, as they add their sediments to the structure. Other calcarious skeletons’ organisms also add the remains to the structure when they die and sink.

Fringing reefs tend to have less diversity of species than other three main types of coral reefs because they are the youngest and grow only onshore. You can find this type of coral reef on Australia, Kenya and several parts of Africa shores.

Barrier Reefs

From the name of this type, You can guess this type is a shallower coral that can sticks out of the water and create a wall like structure. The Great barrier reef in Australia is the most famous largest barrier reefs in the world.

The Great barrier reef is about 1,200 mi and it’s consistent of several complex reefs forming it. The formation of this type happens when several fringing reefs slowly combine together and form a borderline along the coast.

The structures of the calcium carbonate attracts more polyps until the spaces are filled up. A line is formed along the coast and a ring is also created around an island. Large barrier reefs are regarded as the rarest type of coral reef.  

You can see them only in a few places around the world such as, Belize and some parts of the southern Pacific Ocean. If you want to see smaller barrier reefs, go to islands which are in an earlier stage of submersion.

Atoll Reefs

An Atoll Reef is a coral reef that has a ring like shape. We can also define it as a small islands which shaped in a circle with a lagoon which located in the middle and All this structure is found in the middle of the sea.

Atoll Reefs are considered from the three main types of Coral reefs that are formed when an island sunk completely in the middle of the ocean and this island are considered the tops of underwater volcanoes. 

You will find this type of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean which has warm and salty waters. They can grow up to 12.6 km. There are many animals that can be found in this type as above million species can live in one square kilometers of this reef.

Fringing two Barrier to Atoll, all these three main types of coral reefs represent the stages of the development of a reef.