Soft corals are reef builders

New research suggests that soft coral might be vital for the health of our oceans. Scientists in Tel Aviv and Taiwan have found that, like stony corals, soft corals are an essential building block in all reefs.

Previously it had been thought that these corals were only minor contributors to coral reefs but a major study of reefs in the South China Sea has found that in fact massive parts of the reefs are formed by tiny parts of the soft coral called sclerites