Coral Reefs

BY: Lytzy Barron

Facts about Coral Reef

• Coral Reefs are found in clear tropical ocean in Australia. The average temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Coral Reefs are naturally colorful because of the algae. During spawning season people like to dive into the reef.

Factors of Coral Reef

• Abiotic Factors- Nonliving factors that influences ecosystems such as temperature, light and available nutrients.

• Biotic Factors- Plants and bacteria are two other major biotic. Bacteria breaks down dead organic and converted into energy that can be used by other living thing in the ecosystem.

Food web and Food Chain • Producer- Make it own food, algae,

sea plants and plankton.• Primary Consumer- an animal that

feeds on plants, small fish, molluscs, coral polyps, clams and sponges

• Secondary consumers- a carnivore that feeds only upon herbivores, eels, crabs, starfish and octopus.

• Decomposer- an organism, esp. a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, fan worms and flat fish

• Tertiary Consumers- a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores

Cycles

Environmental Issues• Coral reefs cover an area of over 280,000 km2 and support

thousands of species in what many describe as the “rainforests of the seas. Coral reefs protect Shore from the heave wave and storms. It also benefits human for example food and medicine. Overharvest, disease, predation, pollution and physical damage from boats. But the greatest threat of all to coral reefs is carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. The more CO2 we spew into the air, the greater the consequences of bleaching will be for coral reefs. Corals face another ominous threat from the oceans becoming more acidic as they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and this means that corals will have difficulty growing and building their protective skeletons as ocean waters become more corrosive.

Sources

• https://docs.google.com/a/lexschools.org/document/d/1IaQHjYmqPFAgXYS94veVT4qL1QO_N6XroOlbLA77KjY/edit