Deep Sea Coral Reefs represent areas of astounding biodiversity. Lush cold water coral and sponge gardens thrive in the icy waters. An expanse of colourful coral structures blooming out of the sea floor, providing important habitats for deep-dwelling life. And yet, they are one of the most poorly understood of all deep sea ecosystems. Much like in shallow reefs, deep-sea corals are made up of colonies of coral polyps, working together to survive. They form when a polyp attaches itself to a rock, and divides into thousands of clones through the process of budding. The polyps then secrete a protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which creates the coral structure.

What’s unique about the corals of the deep, however, is their resilience to the extremities. As they are not dependent on warm water, they can thrive in waters that are as cold as -1 degrees Celsius, and in all the ocean’s basins, forming havens of life amidst vast canyons, on continental shelves and slopes, and on towering ocean seamounts. Unlike tropical reefs, they live from 150 feet to more than 10,000 feet below sea level, where sunlight is dim to nonexistent. So, instead of obtaining energy or nutrients from sunlight, they live off the dead, and gather all they need by catching organic material called marine snow that drifts past on the currents. But leftovers from the shallows are not enough on their own. Here, the corals also eat microorganisms, such as krill and plankton, ensnaring them with their branching, feathered, fan-shaped structures.

DEEP SEA HUB: naturalworldfacts.com/deep-sea-hub

00:00 - Introduction: Deep Sea Coral Reefs
01:13 - What are Cold-Water Reefs?
01:52 - How Corals Form
02:17 - The Resilience of Deep Sea Corals
02:55 - How Deep Sea Corals Survive
03:25 - The Cycle of Life and Death
03:47 - The Lophelia Pertusa Coral
04:26 - How Cold-Water Reefs Form
04:59 - Life at Deep Sea Coral Gardens
05:19 - The 2,700 Year Old Gold Coral
05:28 - The 4,200 Year Old Black Coral
05:40 - Why Deep Sea Reefs are so Diverse
06:21 - The Red Coffin Fish
06:40 - The Crab-Coral Symbiosis
07:07 - The Threat of Bottom-Trawling to Deep Sea Reefs
07:55 - Conclusion: The Importance of Deep Coral Gardens
08:40 - The Deep Sea Hub

Footage used belongs to Schmidt Ocean Institute, MBARI, OceanX and the Ocean Exploration Institute.

#deepsea #wildlife #nature #documentary #ocean #marinebiology #science #biology #VisioningCoralSea

Music Used:
Vishnu - Patrick Patrikios
Voices - Patrick Patrikios
Nocturne - Asher Fulero
In The Throes - Asher Fulero
New Year - Bad Snacks

Resources:
ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/coral-reefs/deep-sea-coral…
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservati…
www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-li…