CORAL REEFS

Coral reefs are ridges of rock that are formed by the growth and deposit of coral

ANIMALS

ANIMALS

• Sea sponges
• Zooplankton
• Groupers
• Eels
• Snappers

SEA SPONGES

Sea Sponges don't look like Spongebob. (They look like what's an the background.) They feed off of plankton and bacteria. There are no real genders when it comes to these sponges. In the reproductive process, Sea Sponges pick which role they'll play. They have it easy.

PLANKTON

There are two different types of plankton, Zooplankton (animal) and Phytoplankton (plant). Zooplankton could be considered cannibals for their main diet is other plankton.

GROUPERS

Groupers can be pretty big fish, for example, the Goliath Grouper. This massive fish gobbled up a four-foot shark in one bite! (Click the link in notes slide for the video.)

EELS

Eels have four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Suborder is a category that ranks below order and above family. Genera are categories that rank above species and below family.

SNAPPERS

There are about 150 different species of Snappers. These fish are known for their distinctive gaping mouths, sharp, canine-like teeth, forked tails, and "stretched" bodies. Snappers are part of the Lutjenidae family. Their diet consists of crustaceans and smaller fish.

SOME BIOTIC FACTORS

• High-ranked predators
• Disease
• Fishermen

HIGH-RANKED PREDATORS

• Sharks
• Goliath Groupers
• Angelfish
• Fairy Basslet
• Parrotfish

DISEASE

• Black-band
• Coral bleaching
• Dark spots
• Red-band
• White-band

FISHERMEN

• Fishermen decrease the population of fish when they don't throw them back.
• Their boats create polution.
• Sometimes their nets catch onto and kill the wrong thing. Example:
• Their nets can catch onto plants and drag them out of the soil or
• Animals can get caught and suffocate/ lose their limbs

PLANTS

PLANTS

• Mangroves
• Seagrasses
• Algae

MANGROVES

Mangroves are close to shore shrub-like plants that typically grow in forest-like environments that line many tropical shores.

SEAGRASSES

Seagrasses are SAVs (Submerged Aquatic Vegetation). They have evolved from terrestrial plants and sometimes are confused for marine macro algae. A single acre of seagrasses supports as many as 40,000 fish and 50 million invertebrates.

ALGAE

Algae are organisms that occur in most habitats. They can grow from small, single-celled creatures to large kelp, growing up to 65 meters long!

SOME ABIOTIC FACTORS

• Sunlight
• Oxygen
• Water
• Oil spills
• Pressure

Sunlight
When there is a lack of sunlight, most plants cannot produce their food. Photosynthesis involves sun light. Too much sunlight may dry out plants and/or cause animals to over heat.

Oxygen
A lack of oxygen would wipe out the animals, soon wiping out the plants for they need carbon dioxide to survive.

Water
A lack of water in a water biome will cause the living things to have a little bit of trouble breathing and living for that matter.

Oil spills
Oil spills are a major reason for the deaths of so many species of animals and plants across all of the oceans. An example is the Great Barrier Reef spill. Oil spills are created by holes/leaks in boats and sinking boats like the Titanic.

Pressure
If the water pressure is really high fish can implode entirely. The same thing goes with anything else, living or non-living. If the water pressure is up, you're crushed.

MAP

LANDMARK

RESOURCES

• National Geographic
• What we learned in class

THE END