Chapter 15. Chapter 15: Marine Ecosystems
Where are coral reefs found and what is the community makeup...?
Guiding Question 15.3
Where are coral reefs found, and what is the community makeup of these complex ecosystems?
Why You Should Care
Coral are a unique symbiotic relationship between an animal and a plant: The animal provides the hard calcium carbonate skeleton and the algae live within the coral polyp and provides some nutrition in exchange for shelter. Millions of coral polyps growing together create the large structures we call coral reefs.
Each region of the ocean contains coral reefs with a unique community of dozens of coral and other plant species and hundreds of different animal species. It is estimated that, worldwide, dozens of bird species, more than 4,000 fish species, and thousands of invertebrate species (like clams, sea urchins, etc.) live in coral reefs. Some of the species use the coral reef as shelter and live within or around the coral. Other species feed off the coral itself, and still others eat algae that would otherwise overrun the coral.
Question 15.1
