The phrase "atoll reefs" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing specific types of coral reef formations that are typically circular or oval in shape and surround a lagoon.
Example: "The Maldives is famous for its stunning atoll reefs, which attract divers from around the world."
Alternatives: "coral atolls" or "ring-shaped reefs".
Platform-edge reefs, patch reefs, pinnacle reefs, atoll reefs and horseshoe reefs, all developed on various platforms.
They are best exemplified by the roughly circular quiet waters that are surrounded by warm-water coral atoll reefs.
English naturalist Charles Darwin concluded in 1842 that barrier reefs began as reefs fringing the land around which they now form a barrier and that oceanic atoll reefs began as reefs fringing a volcanic island.
Thus, there are two main types of lagoons: (1) elongated or irregular stretches of water that lie between coastal barrier islands and the shoreline and (2) circular or irregular stretches of water surrounded by coral atoll reefs or protected by barrier coral reefs from direct wave action.
Reef islands are widespread in the low-latitude Pacific, concentrated along atoll reefs in its equatorial central part.
Often reef islands are long and sinuous, accumulated on sub-circular (atoll) reefs that have grown up from the submerged flanks of a drowned volcanic island.
Coral reefs are generally divided into four main types: fringing reef, barrier reef, atoll reef, and patch reef.
Maximum growth would occur at the seaward edge, and lagoons would develop between the ascending barrier, or atoll, reef and the land or volcanic cone.
Waves on most atoll reef crests and reef flats are water depth-limited, which suggests as water depth increases with sea-level rise, larger waves17 will propagate onto or develop via wind forcing on the reef flat or in the lagoon (Fig. 2).
The lower islands in the database (<30 m) dominate intraplate locations, illustrating the comparative impotence of most island-building processes here compared to convergent margins as well as the tendency for sinking islands to be preserved as (atoll) reef islands long after their volcanic foundations have been submerged.
The islands, atolls, reefs and underwater mountain ranges offer unique habitat to hundreds of rare species of birds and fish.
