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Audio Tour-(4) Coral detritus

(4) Coral detritus

Introduce

Coralswith gorgeous colorscomplex shapes are often found around the coral shallow sheds in Penghu.The colorsofcoralscome from the symbiotic algae that inhabit their cells,these symbiotic algae are rich in pigments that can take on different colors depending on the environmentalconditions. The symbiotic alga can perform photosynthesismake a very important contribution to coral metabolismskeleton accumulation. However, when the environment is not suitable, such as drastic changes in water temperature, luminosity, salinity,pollution of seawater, corals will lose their symbiotic algae, leading to coral “bleaching”gradualdeath. Most of the corals accumulated on the coast of Penghu belong to branch reef-building corals, which are, in fact,broken branchesfragments of coralsravagedby strong northeast monsoontyphoonwashed off to the coast. These strips of debris, commonly known as “Lingzi”in Penghu, are the natural raw materials for the burning of lime.Lime was the material for the early Penghu ancestors to build houseswalls. In its heyday from 1948 to 1965, Penghu lime was sold to the west coast of Taiwan, but the lime kiln industry declined later due to the competition of modern building materials such as cementred bricks andwas finally brought to a complete standstillin 1997, when the environmental protection units began to strictly ban air pollution. The coral detritus collected by this center is from Chiyu, Huxi Township.