
Surprising, Vibrant Reef Discovered in the Muddy Amazon - michaelmachine
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/220416-Amazon-coral-reef-Brazil-ocean-river-fish/
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michaelmachine
Most reefs rely on photosynthesis via a symbiotic relationship with
cyanobacteria to get energy, but the water here is too cloudy. Instead many of
the sponges in this reef rely on a symbiotic relationship with chemosynthetic
microbes. Pretty cool!

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solipsism
This makes me realize how lucky we are that the ocean is as relatively
transparent as it is, such that we can witness the beauty of ocean reefs. We
might never find a way to really _see_ how amazing this reef is. We can map
it, explore it, and probably eventually render really amazing recreations of
what it would look like in clear water, but we'll never see it.

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theseatoms
Think about how much luckier we are that air is transparent!

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mmastrac
The air is transparent because those are the wavelengths we (as air creatures)
evolved to see. If it wasn't, we would have evolved sight in wavelengths (or
media) that _was_ transparent: ie: sonar, x-rays.

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trentlott
That's debateable. We may simply have evolved without photon sensors.

Other wavelengths may have issues with detection or the information provided;
if something can cut through obstructions in the atmosphere it may be hard to
grow cells which interact with it or the rays may also ignore whatever is
present locally at most scales.

The eye might be reduced in detail to the same domain as hearing or smell.

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Varcht
Been reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, it mentions corals at the
mouth of the Amazon.

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droithomme
_Sparsely populated reef discovered in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean,
spanning a large area that includes the amazon delta._

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moonshinefe
"At least 35 sections of the continental shelf were acquired by Brazilian or
transnational companies for oil exploration, up to 20 of which may soon be
producing oil near the reefs."

Sigh.

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neves
Uninformative news. What is a section? What percentage of the reef area are
them? How near?

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nathancahill
I forget who said it (Neil Tyson?), but something along the lines of: "If you
hear a statistic, change the order of magnitude. Does that change how you feel
about the fact? If not, the statistic is probably bullshit."

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michaelmachine
here is the paper
[http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501252](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501252)

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nbb
Sparsely populated with beautiful yellow rectangles.

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raverbashing
Just to be clear, this is as much in the Amazon as the Gulf of Mexico is on
the Mississippi

It is on the sea, close to its end, but not on the river itself

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netman21
But OMG, the reef is already threatened.

