Transcript Life on a Coral Reef Types of Reefs Three major types of coral reefs

Life on a Coral Reef
Types of Reefs
Three major types of coral reefs: fringing,
barrier, and atoll.
The fringing reef follows the shoreline
closely. There is no body of water between
the reef and the land.
Barrier reefs begin offshore with a shallow
lagoon connecting the shore and the reef.
Atoll reefs are reefs that circle an island which
then sinks. They consist of narrow horseshoeshaped reef with a shallow lagoon.
The Great Barrier Reef
• One of the largest
and most famous
reefs is the Great
Barrier Reef off the
coast of Australia.
• How does the barrier
reef protect the
coast of Australia?
Man-made reef – ship wreck
What is Coral?
White coral
• A coral is a tiny, saltwater
animal no bigger than a
pencil eraser.
• The coral is not mobile, it
stays in one place its whole
life.
• Individual corals are called
polyps.
• A polyp is made of a hollow
tube shaped body and a
mouth surrounded by
tentacles.
• These tentacles sting and
capture smaller drifting
animals called zooplankton
for food. Zooplankton are
microscopic.
Beauty of nature: life and
death of a reef
Reef building corals
• Reef building corals build
colonies of thousands of
polyps which produce
huge spreading structures
of limestone and can
stretch for thousands of
miles
• Each coral polyp forms a
major part of the reef and
builds a protective
limestone cup around its
soft body, like an external
skeleton
A view from the island
Look who greets you…
… and stays with you
during a dive
Let’s go on down!
Travel down and up by the
anchor rope
Here we go…
..to a place where colors
are “in!”
Animals living on or visiting
• Sponges, seastars
a reef
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•
•
Corals, sea fans
Sea slug, worms
Tropical fish
Turtles
Mammals
Sponges
Sponges
Orange
sponge
Large sponges?
Giant sponges
House of sponge ~ Arrow crab
rests in an azure vase sponge
Purple mushroom
Bubble coral
Green brain coral
Healthy coral reef scene
Relationships ? Some organisms
can form lasting relationships with other life
forms resulting in both organisms receiving some
benefit – one organism gets food and the other
gets its parasites removed
Other relationships
Here a clown fish
and an anemone
have formed
mutually beneficial
relationship – the
clown fish is
protected in the
home of the
anemone, while the
anemone might get a
tasty meal as a
larger organism tries
to capture the fish
Harmful relationship :
Soldierfish and a parasitic
isopod
Can you find me?
Can you
imagine how
hard it would
be to
recognize a
marbled
grouper as a
fish if you
were colorblind?
Purple ball anemone
Pillar coral
Sea fan
Deepwater
sea fans
Christmas Tree Worms
grow atop some star coral
Christmas Tree Worms are
polychaetes
Octopus
Brittle stars
Spiny lobsters
Silky shark cruises the reef
Bonnethead shark
Plankton feeder ~ is a good thing!
School of bluestriped grunt
Pipehorse near the algae in
which it lives
Almost-transparent blenny
Juvenile yellowtail damselfish
Juvenile French angel
Porkfish
Initial-phase yellowhead wrasse
Fans and trumpetfish
Sargassum triggerfish
Trunkfish
Squirrelfish
Queen triggerfish
Black durgon
Juvenile blue tang
Royal Gamma
Hamlet
Blenny
Garden eels
Jawfish
School of Bermuda chub
Diver hovers…
Tesselated blenny peeks out of
its home in a barnacle shell
Fish haven!!
Beautiful, small and fragile…
…large and frightening to just
unique
moray eel
jacknife fish
Unique
Sharpnose puffer
Honeycomb
cowfish
Scorpionfish
White-spotted filefish
Yellowtail snappers
Turtles join
So many critters, so little time
Coral around this blackhead
blenny's home is completely
bleached
September 1998
Saving the reef
• What can we
do to protect
the reefs of
the world?
Here are some suggestions…
1.
2.
3.
4.
Become a certified diver
Get a group together
Check the internet
Book a trip
Advice: do not go to Roatan in any month
that ends in "ber." ~ Rainy season
References
www.soc.soton.ac.uk/.../ecology/ph
oto/coral/coral2.html
http://www.daveread.com
• http://krupp.wcc.hawaii.edu/
BIOL200L/bio200L.htm
The end…
Which
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