Most of the population of the world is concentrated on the continental margins, or more specifically, along the coastlines. This is due to multiple factors, some of which are:
- Climate;
The climate in the coastal regions is usually much more pleasant that the climate deeper into the mainland, so naturally the people preferred to live where it is more pleasant.
- Arable land;
In close proximity to the coastline there's usually nice fertile soil, so it is very suitable for production of food, thus managing to sustain yourself.
- Economy;
The coastal regions, in lots of cases, are well suited for building ports, and that makes them excellent places from where trade can take place, so it strengthens the economy of these places.
Answer:
A coral reef is a reef-shaped structure in the sea, formed by anemones and which over time becomes large enough to have a significant ecological and physical impact on its environment. These are the largest structures built from living organisms in the world. Coral reefs are complex marine ecosystems. They are a biotope (area of life) of a biocenosis (community of living beings) consisting of plants and animals, for example worms, shellfish, sponges, thorns and crustaceans. Coral reefs play a significant role as “breeding grounds” for the offspring of fish inhabiting the high seas.
The position of a place north or south of the equator is described
in terms of its latitude. Since we're talking about the surface of
a sphere, latitude is an angle, and its value is given in angle
measure.
Any unit of angle is fine ... degrees, radians, grads, etc., and if
you're given an angle in one unit, you can always easily change
it to a unit that you like better ... but 'degrees' has been the unit
used most often for latitude, and longitude too, practically since
the whole system was invented a few hundred years ago.
For parts of an angle smaller than a whole degree, 1/60 of a
degree (minutes) and 1/3600 of a degree (seconds) were used
traditionally for the first couple hundred years. But that ponderous,
inconvenient system is rapidly giving way now to plain old decimal
degrees, probably because those are easier for the computer to handle.
