The document discusses coral reef biodiversity and the Great Barrier Reef. It describes the Great Barrier Reef as a collection of over 3000 coral reefs off Australia's coast, forming one of the natural wonders of the world. It is home to thousands of species and provides food and jobs to the local economy. However, the reef is threatened by pollution, coastal development, ship traffic, and climate change, which have already damaged and killed parts of the reef. The reef ecosystem is highly complex, with coral polyps, fish, sharks, rays, and other species interacting as producers, grazers, predators, and through symbiotic relationships.

1. Coral Reef Biodiversity

2. What is the Great Barrier Reef and why is it
important?
Structure of the reef
What holds all those tiny corals
together?
• Bryozoans encrust the reef. These
microscopic invertebrates from
branching colonies over coral
skeletons and reef debris, cementing
the reef structure. Imagine lacing your
fingers with two other people and
they do that too, until billions of
people are clumped together holding
hands.

3. The Great Barrier Reef
• The Great Barrier Reef is the
name given to the more than
3000 rainbow colored coral reefs
that grow off Australia's east
coast. In places, the reef is as
much as one hundred miles
wide. Although there are natural
breaks in the reef, the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park
maintains shipping lanes - wide
cuts - through the reef so ships
can get through.

4. The reef is very important to Australia's
economy.
• It provides food and jobs. 80%
of the land along the reef
supports agriculture - from
fisheries to cattle grazing to
crops. The reef protected beach
offers white sand for lazing and
sparking turquoise and aqua
water for snorkeling, swimming,
and surfing.

5. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the natural
wonders of the world.
• It is home to thousands of species
of plants and animals. The reef
itself provides food, pearls,
treasure from shipwrecks, and
tourism. It is of great interest to
the scientific and medical
communities of the world.
Treatments for cancer, AIDS,
asthma, arthritis, and other
infections are being researched
from organisms found in coral
reefs.

6. The reef is in danger.
• Run-off from land based agriculture,
urban development, and aquaculture
have all done their part to damage the
reef. Oil spills and normal pollution
from private boats and thousands of
commercial vessels have damaged it.
Tourists have damaged it. Infestation
and disease have damaged it. Rather
than use the passageways provided,
ships push their way through the reef
to save time and money. Sections of
the reef are already dead. Other
sections are dying.
• Incredible UNESCO Sites in Danger of Disappearing
www.thedailybeast.com

7. The Coral Reefs Vocabulary
• Biotic factors – are the living
components that affect an
ecosystem.
• Examples of biotic factors include
disease-causing bacteria, invasive
species, and humans.
• Abiotic factors are the nonliving
components of an ecosystem.
Examples include temperature,
salinity, and pH.
• Invasive species – an introduced
species that is harmful to native
species.
• Introduced species are organisms
that do not naturally occur in a
given region.
• Not all introduced species are
invasive species. Only species that
have harmful effects are
considered invasive.

8. Vocabulary
• Coral – a class of marine animals in
the phylum Cnidaria that are
important reef builders in tropical
oceans.
• A coral colony consists of many
tiny polyps. Each polyp contains
a set of tentacles surrounding a
central mouth.
• Polyps of stony corals excrete
exoskeletons of calcium
carbonate. Over time, coral
colonies can grow to large size.
• Corals thrive in warm, shallow,
clear, and nutrient-poor oceans
• Coral reef – a complex and diverse
marine ecosystem formed on the
exoskeletons secreted by stony
corals.
• Coral reefs are found in shallow,
clear waters in tropical regions
of the world.
• Coral reefs occupy less than 1%
of the world’s ocean floor but
contain over 25% of all marine
species, flamingos, and many
others.

9. Coral Reef Animals The Coral Reef Ecosystem
Sponges have been a part of the coral
reef ecosystem from early on. Several
species of these porous animals
inhabit reefs. Sponges provide shelter
for fishes, shrimps, crabs, and other
small animals. They appear in a variety
of shapes and colors.
The coral reef ecosystem is a diverse
collection of species that interact
with each other and the physical
environment. The sun is the initial
source of energy for this ecosystem.
Through photosynthesis,
phytoplankton, algae, and other
plants convert light energy into
chemical energy. As animals eat
plants or other animals, a portion of
this energy is passed on.

10. Sea anemones
Sea anemones are close relatives of
corals. Indo- Pacific reef anemones are
known for their symbiotic relationships
with clownfish and anemone fishes. An
anemone's tentacles provide refuge for
these fishes and their eggs. In return,
anemone fishes may protect the
anemone from predators such as
butterflyfishes. Anemone fishes may
even remove parasites from their host
anemones. They help each other, so
this is called a symbiotic relationship.

11. Green turtles
Some sea turtles frequent reef
areas. Green, loggerhead, and
hawksbill sea turtles live in the
warm waters of the Great
Barrier Reef.

12. Parrotfish make
WHAT?!
For years, scientists believed parrotfish
were destroying the reef, but studies
have proven that when parrotfish are
prevented from feeding along an area
of the reef, the coral is “smothered” to
death by the growth of algal mats.
Parrotfish use chisel-like teeth to nibble
on hard corals. These fish are
herbivores and eat the algae within the
coral. They grind the coral's exoskeleton
to get the algae, and defecate sand. A
single parrotfish can produce about
five tons (10,000 lbs.) of sand per year!

13. Underwater cleaning
stations
Wrasses comprise a large group
of colorful cigar-shaped fishes.
Some species are known as
cleaners, and set up cleaning
stations along the reef. When a
larger fish aligns itself at one of
these cleaning stations, a
cleaner wrasse removes
parasites from the fish. The
banded coral shrimp is an
example of a cleaner shrimp. It
removes parasites and dead
skin from reef fishes.

14. Undersea food court
Eels are one of the reef's top
predators. These fishes live in
crevices in the reef and venture
out at night to hunt and feed. They
have sharp teeth set in a powerful
jaw. Eels eat small fishes,
octopuses, shrimps, and crabs.
Other fishes found on the reefs
include angelfishes, butterflyfishes,
damselfishes, triggerfishes,
seahorses, snappers, squirrelfishes,
grunts, pufferfishes, groupers,
barracudas, and scorpion-fishes.
Photos courtesy Creative
Commons.

15. Swim in for a quick
bite
Some species of sharks, skates,
and rays live on or near the
reef. Others swim in to eat.
Shark species include lemon,
nurse, Pacific blacktip, white-
tipped reef, and zebra sharks.
These sharks as well as rays
generally eat crabs, shrimps,
squids, clams, and small fishes.

16. The reef's food web
• Both schooling and solitary
fishes are essential residents of
the reef ecosystem. Fishes play a
vital role in the reef's food web,
acting as both predators and
prey. Their leftover food scraps
and wastes provide food or
nutrients for other reef
inhabitants.

17. Types of feeding
• Food chain – a sequence of organisms in
which each organism feeds on the one below.
• Example: Algae Parrotfish Grouper
Shark.
• In this food chain, parrotfish eat algae,
groupers eat parrotfish, and sharks eat
groupers.
• Consumer – an organism that obtains
energy by feeding on organic materials.
• Organic materials are carbon-based
compounds produced by living things.
• All animals, all fungi, and even some
plants are consumers.
• Coral reef consumers include fishes,
sponges, and other animals.
• Filter feeder – an organism that
eats by straining food, such as
plankton, from water.
• Examples of filter feeders
include sponges, manta rays,
whale sharks, baleen whales,
barnacles, clams
• Grazer – an organism that feeds by
eating plants, algae, and other
immobile organisms.
• Important reef grazers include
parrotfish and long-spined sea
urchins.

18. Predators that eat the
reef
Sea stars, sea cucumbers, and sea
urchins live on the reef. The crown-
of-thorns sea star is a well- known
predator of coral polyps. Large
numbers of these sea stars can
devastate reefs, leaving behind only
the calcium carbonate skeletons. In
dead reefs, recently killed by the
crown-of-thorns sea star, larger
food and game fish are almost
totally absent. Even deep-sea fish
populations may be affected by this
breakdown in the food chain.
Crown of thorns starfish. (Photo credit: NOAA)
www.unc.edu/

19. On your own
• http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral_quiz.htm
After class, please click on the
link to go to the interactive quiz.
Take the quiz.
Then make a screenshot of you
quiz results.
Email the screenshot to me.
For five points extra credit, write a short
sentence telling one new thing that you
learned from this lesson. Type that into
the chat box.

20. Extension
Want to know more?
Just click on the link. If it does not take you
to the site, then copy and paste the url into a
new tab and click “Enter”.
info@fisheyeview.com
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21. Thank you!
• Credits
• 1) All video photographed and edited by Peter Mumby. http://www.aussmc.org/documents/OveHoegh-
GuldbergPresentation.pdf
• 2) Website and database design by John Hedley.
• 3) Funding generously provided by The Royal Society, World Bank/GEF Targeted Research for Coral Reefs, Natural
Environment Research Council, US National Science Foundation, Australian Research Council, Pew Fellows Programme,
National Geographic Society, & Khalid bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.
• Still photos courtesy: www.unc.edu/; NOAA, and Creative Commons