1 / 17

Coral Reefs

Coral Reefs. By Harsha Lakamsani. Introduction. Coral Reefs are made of limestone structures of dead and living stony coral Coral polyps are formed by red and green coralline algae Coral gets color from zooxanthellae Found all over the world. Animals of the Coral Reef.

merton
Download Presentation

Coral Reefs

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Coral Reefs By Harsha Lakamsani

  2. Introduction • Coral Reefs are made of limestone structures of dead and living stony coral • Coral polyps are formed by red and green coralline algae • Coral gets color from zooxanthellae • Found all over the world

  3. Animals of the Coral Reef

  4. Plants of the Coral Reef • Seagrass • Seaweed • Mangroves • Sea lettuce • Algae • Zooxanthellae • Benthic diatoms

  5. About Coral Reefs • Water in the reef is 68° to 82°F (20° -28°C) • Reefs are found on eastern shores of land • Reefs usually develop in areas with lots of wave action because of incoming nutrients • Waves also prevent sediment from falling on reefs • Reefs need calcium (calcium becomes limestone) to form and thrive

  6. Biotic Factors • Animals • Sharks, Fish, Eels, Corals, Anenomes, Plankton, Etc. • Plants • Seagrasses, Seaweeds, Mangroves, Sea Lettuce, Algae, Etc.

  7. Abiotic Factors • Rocks • Dead Coral • Limestone • Water • Sunlight • Temperature • pH • Etc.

  8. Famous Locations • Great Barrier Reef • Red Sea Coral Reef • New Caledonia Barrier Reef • Mesoamerican Barrier Reef • Florida Reef • Andros Coral Reef • Zhongsha Islands

  9. Map • Red dots = Coral Reefs

  10. Producers • Photosynthetic Autotrophs • Phytoplankton • Coralline algae • Filamentous turf algae • Zooxanthellae in corals • Seaweed • Etc.

  11. Prey in the Coral Reef • Consumers (primary and secondary) • Zooplankton • Invertabrate larvae • Benthic grazers • Few corals • Few crabs • Sea urchins • Green sea turtles • Herbivorous fish • Plankton feeders • Corallivores • Benthic invertebrate feeders • Piscivores • Etc.

  12. Predators • Carnivores (secondary and tertiary consumers) • Plankton feeders • Corallivores • Benthic invertebrate feeders • Piscivores • Sharks • Barracudas • Moray eels • (If present): Dolphins, Seals, Sea birds

  13. Food Chains • Zooxanthellae (on coral) -> Corallivores -> Parrotfish -> Moray eels • Zooplankton -> Fish (ex: triggerfish) -> Piscivores -> Seals -> Sharks • Seaweed -> Parrotfish -> Snappers

  14. Pictures of Coral Reefs

  15. Videos of Coral Reefs

  16. Interesting Facts • Make up about 0.2% of total area on Earth • House tens of thousands of marine species • Usually located at a depth of 150 feet • Deepest locations at a depth of 450 feet • One of the settings of Pixar’sFinding Nemo

  17. Fin.

More Related