Tropical rain forests and coral reefs are some of the most productive and diverse ecosystems on our planet. Despite the many differences in the two environments, they also share remarkable similarities.
For this reason, the Aquarium participates in a variety of inter-related activities to preserve, protect, and renew these vital environments.
Coral Reefs
- Marine Conservation Meter - The Aquarium is a partner with the Nature Conservancy, the Center for Ecosystem Survival, and the Acuario Nacional of the Dominican Republic in protecting these fragile ecosystems by collecting donations in a Marine Conservation Meter located in our Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit.
- Project Reef Action describes the Aquarium's efforts to help save coral reefs, a beautiful yet fragile environment.
Rain Forests
- Rain Forest Conservation Parking Meter - Once again, contributions to the Rain Forest Conservation Parking Meter, totaling more than $27,900 in 1998, allowed for the purchase of land in the Talamanca Corridor of Costa Rica—an area that supports a majority of the country’s plant and animal species—through the Center for Ecosystem Survival’s Adopt-an-Acre program. Some of the purchased property will be turned over to indigenous associations to be managed as examples of traditional and sustainable land use.
- Project Piaba was instituted to conserve and maintain the live ornamental fish of the Rio Negro basin in Brazil at commercially feasible and ecologically sustainable levels. Ornamental fish commerce is the principal economic activity of the area, which exports nearly twenty million fishes annually, worth more than three million dollars to the region. Project Piaba and the Aquarium hope to ensure the survival of Amazonian rain forests and all their animal inhabitants through cooperative educational efforts.
Rain Forests and Coral Reefs
With incredibly diverse populations of plants and animals, both ecosystems feature complex food webs and demonstrate remarkably efficient systems of recycling nutrients to sustain their populations.
Rain forests and coral reefs often exist within the same regions, with coral reefs off-shore from many of the world's rain forests – or the land where rain forests once existed.
The health of rain forests depends on water nearly to the same extent as its underwater counterpart. The world's driest rain forest receives almost seven feet of water a year; the wettest receives almost 25 feet.
Unfortunately, the negative impact of human actions on the two environments is another trait shared by the two environments.
