The Nome nugget., 1942-07-13

WAlle TeeI-IOrmlng cOralS and gorgonians are confined to tropical waters and to comparatively shall low seas, not exceeding 20 to 25 fathoms in depth, other species. which are solitary in habit, or that form small colonies, grow in deep seas, and in a few instances in more northern shallow waters.
 The beautiful astrangia is found along the New England coast, en- crusting rocks where the tide flows freely, in patches about the size of ones hand. Its delicate rosy tints remind one of the terrestrial arbu- tus. Again, those first cousins of the corals, the sea anemones, adorn tide pools and wharf piles with their colorful beauty along the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts, while in the Tropics their brilliant hues add to the glories of the coral reefs themselves.
 These loWly creatures, together with other lime e-forming organisms associated with them, have filled a most important place in determin- ing the geographical and geological features of the globe. Their mas- sive reefs penetrate the surface of the tropic seas and must be re- corded carefully on Photographic charts for the safety of navigators.
 Vast Effects of Tiny Creatures.
 Their islands dot the southern oceans, many of them the abode of men. Their huge submarine depos- its, elevated by geologic changes of past ages, have been important fac tors in determining the outline and surface features of continents and have entered into the structure of mountain ranges. They have fur nished building stones for houses and marble for statuary.
 Their disintegrated substance has fertilized fields and grown crops, f. nally washing down to the seas, to be worked over again by the ubiquitous polyps for future ages.
 Many diverse species of coral composing a reef form structures. ever growing higher and higher, croWding and becoming entangled with each other in thickets of gro- tesque and weird beauty. The soft colors of their outer surface run through varied hues of rose, pink, orange, tan, yellow, green, blue and purple-all the colors of the spec trum. These colors are partly due to pigments in the living tissues, which invest the surface of the coral limestone skeleton, and partly to another very interesting phenome- non.
 Microscopic marine plants, or al- gae, live in the inner tissues of the translucent polyp wall. Each indi- vidual is disk-shaped single cell, amber yellow in color. They mul- tiply by millions, often completely filling the cells of the endodermal layer.
 Since they are plants they use the carbon dioXide excreted by the polyp in which they live, and in the presence of sunlight transform it in- to food for themselves, giving forth oxygen in the process. The latter gas, so essential for animal exist ence, is utilized in turn by the polyp in its vital processes. Hence there is maintained a partnership between the plant and the animal of equal importance to both.
 Gets Strong Colors From AIgae.
 If the coral colony happens to be located in strong sunlight, the algae multiply with great rapidity, giving the polyp's tissues deep golden hue. This fact accounts for the rich tans and saffrons of the great elk horn corals that form the extensive treelike growths in the Andros is- land reef.
 If the coral is growing in a sub- marine nook where the sunlight is weak, the algae are relatively few and the coral tissues are seen in their original pigmented color. For example, the brain coral is natural ly green, due to the color of it's pigment, ard that is the way it ap- pears in deeper waters and shaded localities; but in moderately illu- minated areas the microscopic plant partners are more numerous along the summits of the sinpous ridges of the coral, producing yellow color in contrast with the green in the winding valleys between them. Fi- nally, brain corals located in the brilliant sunshine of the shadows on the top of the reef are so com pletely impregnated with algae as to appear a deep chocolate brown.