EXCERPT:
Researchers say the find was not suspected because many of the world's great rivers produce major gaps in reef systems, where no corals grow.
The Amazon plume, an area where freshwater from the river mixes with the salty Atlantic Ocean, affects a broad area of the tropical North Atlantic Ocean in terms of salinity, pH, light penetration and sedimentation, conditions that usually correlate to a major gap in Western Atlantic reefs.
The researchers say the reef appears to be thriving below the freshwater 'plume', or outflow, of the Amazon.
Compared to many other reefs, the scientists say in a paper in Science Advances on Friday, it is is relatively 'impoverished'.
Despite this, they found over 60 species of sponges, 73 species of fish, spiny lobsters, stars and much other reef life.
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