Coral Reef By: Touqa

Coral reefs are a widespread habitat strung along the world's tropical belt. Immensely diverse, they're home to the greatest densities of animal life in the world.

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Where are coral reefs located?

Coral reefs are found around the globe in warm waters. Corals can not stand temperatures that drop much below an average temperature of 18°C. This limits their habitat to waters between 23°N and 23°S latitude. But, while latitude is important, so too is the current.

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Animals At The Coral ReefHow do animals Adapt

It is easy for fish and animals to adapt at the coral reefs because the plants help them camouflage because of there color, for example the clownfish hide in the sea anemones because clownfish is orange and the sea anemones are orange.

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Dwarf Minke Whales

Dwarf minke whales gather in the Coral Reefs every June and July. They are baleen whales which means they feed on tiny plankton and krill through comb-like plates on their upper jaws. Even chasing schools of Sandrine's, anchovies, cod herring and capelin

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Dugongs Dugongs grow to about

3m long, can weigh 400 kg and live to 70 years old. Dugongs are more closely related to elephants than they are to other marine mammals such as whales or dolphins. Dugongs eat sea grass, and actually 'farm' tasty types of sea grass by cropping their preferred plants.

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Sea Snakes It is said that sea snakes

can open there mouths to bite a mans thigh, but sea snakes are not aggressive and don’t do any damage anyone, they adapt to the coral reefs by having modified lungs to help them stay under water for 2 hours but they have to come up to the surface to breath. Sea snakes usually eat shallow fish, fish eggs and eels.

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Sea Turtles

Seven species of Sea Turtles can be found at the Coral Reef.

Green

Leatherback

Hawksbill

Loggerhead

Flat back

Olive Ridely

Sea turtles come in different shapes colors and sizes, while the olive ridely weighs 100 pounds the leatherback typically can weigh up to 650-1,300 pounds! See turtles can swim fast, very fast which can help them swim away from predators. But sea turtles are slow and vulnerable on land. But there adaptations doesn’t guarantee there survival because of the humans interfering.

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Humpback whales Humpback whales

pass by the coral reef every year, they are the fifth largest animal in the world, as big as 600 people. Humpback whales usually survive the coldness because of the fat layer of skin called blubber.

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Plants At the Coral Reef Coralline algae Sea Anemones carbonate (limestone) Sea grasses Giant clams

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Coralline algae

Coralline algae are made up of masses of very fine thread-like filaments, that spread out in thin layers over the reef rock surface. These filaments produce calcium carbonate thus giving the algae an appearance more like a rock than a plant. The encrusting filaments trap sediments of sand, as well cement the particles of sand together. plus coralline algae help to stabilize the coral reef structure.

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Sea Anemones Sea anemones usually

don’t move but when they have the ability to move about 3-4 inches an hour or it rides on top of a hermit crab which helps it move and the hermit crab is a crazy eater so the sea anemones collect food for it. A hermit crab can be between 5-17 cm at least as big as a cup.

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Carbonate (Limestone)

carbonate (limestone). When these algae die, the limestone remains produce sand. One type calcareous algae known as Halimeda produces about fifty percent of the sand found on some of our beaches in the Caribbean.

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Sea Grasses Sea grasses are

different to seaweeds and algae because they have true roots and are flowering plants. Sea grasses are the only flowering plants in the sea. They are important food for turtles and dugongs.

Giant Clams Giant clams can grow to

be more than 1 metre long and can be at least 70 years old. They are the largest bivalve mollusk that has ever existed on the planet. Most giant clams are simultaneous hermaphrodites The largest pearl in the world was found in a giant clam and sold in New York for about $10 million.

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Abiotic How much rainfall does the coral

reefs get in a year? Every reef gets a different amount

of rain. You have South Pacific reefs, Hawaiian reefs, more northerly reefs of the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount range, even reefs in the Caribbean. They all get different amounts of rainfall. What they want is warm salt water, good currents (but not too heavy), and access to a lot of sunlight.

But, just for Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it gets about 2 m (79 in) per year.

The temperature at the coral reef?

There are different temperatures in different places in the coral reefs. Coral reefs live in warm, shallow waters near the edge of land. Since they don't tend to live in waters colder than 18 degrees Celsius, coral reefs generally form in between 23 degrees north latitude and 23 degrees south latitude.

Abiotic  Coral reefs thrive in water temperatures of 77° to 84° Fahrenheit ( 25° and 29°

Celsius ). Certain corals have evolved to survive outside this temperature range such as ahermatypic corals. (see Adaptations and Relationships) The types of corals you find in the Great Barrier Reef are hermatypic corals- meaning they contain zooxanthellae algae and are colorful. These corals can survive in the reef's ranging water temperatures of 64 - 91° Fahrenheit (18-33° Celsius), Temperature- Coral reefs thrive in water temperatures of 77° to 84° Fahrenheit ( 25° and 29° Celsius ). Certain corals have evolved to survive outside this temperature range such as ahermatypic corals. (see Adaptations and Relationships) The types of corals you find in the Great Barrier Reef are hermatypic corals- meaning they contain zooxanthellae algae and are colorful. These corals can survive in the reef's ranging water temperatures of 64 - 91° Fahrenheit (18-33° Celsius) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abiotic Nutrients -  Corals survive

only in clear  water, without much sediment, where light can breach the surface of the water.  Since there isn't much debris floating around, the water  is usually low in nutrients. These waters would not naturally have many animals living in them because of the lack of nutrients, but since corals live here, many thousands of animals survive by eating either  the coral, or the animals that eat the coral.

Light- Light is incredibly important for coral reefs.  The reason corals are able to survive in such non-nutritious  water is because of the zooxanthellae algae produces food for the coral as well as itself.  In order to photosynthesize to produce food however, the algae needs light.  Without light, this ecosystem cannot exist.

How Do Humans Effect Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are very fragile, and unfortunately, people have had a bad influence on them. People sometimes step on them while snorkeling, damaging their structure. But they are also very sensitive for water temperature and pollution. Due to global warming, seawater temperatures are going up this is a big problem because coral reefs cannot handle temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius, and pollution is also a big problem all over the world. 

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What can be Done to Protect the Coral Reef

ProtectThe coral Reefs

Follow the three R’s: Reduce, reuse and recycle

When scuba divers dive they shouldn’t touch anything

Keep the environment clean don’t pollute

And last but most importantly SPREAD THE WORD.

Bibliography Answers.com (n.d.) How does humpback whale adapt to its

environment?. [online] Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_humpback_whale_adapt_to_its_environment [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].

Library.thinkquest.org (n.d.) Sea Anemones. [online] Available at: http://library.thinkquest.org/J001418/anemone.html [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].

  Answers.yahoo.com (2010) how do people affect coral reefs?.

[online] Available at: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110324182441AAcnYnq [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].

Bibliography Thewildclassroom.com (2003)

Coral Reef Biome. [online] Available at: http://www.thewildclassroom.com/biomes/coralreef.html [Accessed: 9 Jan 2013].

  EHow (2001) How Coral Reef

Animals Adapt to Their Habitat. [online] Available at: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5589055_coral-reef-animals-adapt-habitat.html [Accessed: 10 Jan 2013].

 

Enchantedlearning.com (2010) MINKE WHALE. [online] Available at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/species/Minke.shtml [Accessed: 13 Jan 2013].

  Reef.crc.org.au (n.d.) Reef Facts -

Plants and Animals. [online] Available at: http://www.reef.crc.org.au/discover/plantsanimals/facts_plantanimal.htm [Accessed: 13 Jan 2013].

 

Cotf.edu (2004) Coral Reefs. [online] Available at: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/coralreef/CRcoralreefs.html [Accessed: 13 Jan 2013].

  Answers.com (n.d.) How do fish

adapt to the coral reef ecosystem?. [online] Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_fish_adapt_to_the_coral_reef_ecosystem# [Accessed: 13 Jan 2013].

 

Library.thinkquest.org (1998) Poisonous Animals: Sea snake (Hydrophiidae). [online] Available at: http://library.thinkquest.org/C007974/2_3sea.htm [Accessed: 13 Jan 2013].

 Spressivo.com (n.d.) New Page 1. [online] Available at: http://spressivo.com/isa/coralreef/abiotic.htm [Accessed: 15 Jan 2013].

Thank You Thanks for

watching

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