Coral Reefs & Darwin

They are the world=s second most productive ecosystem behind rain forests. As they develop, coral reefs characteristically sink into the water, and the reef goes from being a fringing reef to being a barrier reef, to becoming an atoll. This paper will look at how fact and theory interact in Darwin=s discussions and writings on coral reefs.

When Darwin undertook the voyage on the Beagle in 1831, his scientific training at Cambridge had been thorough, but outside the curriculum (Bowler, 157), his having been training for the ministry. Much of his knowledge of geology and natural history was based on his readings of the first volume of Lyell=s Principles of Geology at the beginning of the voyage, and the second volume when he reached South America. He had read widely on the observations of Cook, Kotzebue, Bellinghausen, Duperrey, Beechey, Lutke, Captain Moresby, and others concerning their observation and theories of the development of various coral reefs around the world. His observations of South America meshed with Lyell=s opinions, making him a convinced uniformitarian. However, Darwin did not accept Lyell=s view of the world as being in a steady-state. He did not doubt that there had been an overall direction in the history of

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sacoff, which is narrow, crooked, and fifty-four miles long; or the Maldiva atolls, made up of ring-formed reefs on the margin of a disc, one of which is eighty miles long. He also thought it improbable that there could exist so many huge-sized craters bunched together under the sea where groups of atolls are found (Ridley, 39). A theory proposed by Chamisso (Ridley, 43) supposed that the more massive kinds of coral preferred living in surf on the outer portions of reefs arising from a submarine base. However, this theory would not explain why coral did not occur in central masses rather than the ring formations of reefs and atolls. This theory would also presume that coral grows more vigorously on the edges of the bank than on its central part at a depth where the waves do not break. Darwin could find no evidence to support this theory. According to Darwin, no theory had been advanced to account for barrier reefs which encircle islands of moderate dimensions. Likewise, he could find no evidence to support the theory of Lieut. Nelson, who believed that the ring-shaped reefs were caused by a greater number of germs of corals becoming attached to the declivity of a submerged peak than to the central plateau. One theory in
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Approximate Word count = 2179
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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