What exactly is coral?
Coral is a type of marine organism that belongs to the class Anthozoa in the phylum Cnidaria.
It typically forms colonies of genetically identical individuals, known as polyps, which secrete a hard exoskeleton of calcium carbonate to form reefs.
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and important ecosystems in the ocean, providing habitats for a wide variety of other species.
They also
provide important ecological services, such as shoreline protection and support
for local economies through activities such as tourism and fishing.
Coral Ecosystem and Threats
Coral is a kind of marine life form that has a place with the phylum Cnidaria. Coral is an invertebrate, meaning it doesn't have a spine, and it has a place with similar gathering as jellyfish and ocean anemones.
Coral
is typically found in warm, shallow waters, and it forms the structure of coral
reefs, which are some of the most diverse and important ecosystems in the
ocean. Coral reefs are home to thousands of different species of fish,
crustaceans, mollusks, and other marine life.
Coral is a colonial organism, which means that it is made up of many individual animals called polyps that live together in a colony.
The polyps are small, and they are typically less than an inch in diameter. Each polyp has a soft body and a ring of tentacles around its mouth.
The polyps extract nutrients from the
water using their tentacles, and they also use them to capture small planktonic
animals.
Such as global warming and ocean acidification, pollution, and overfishing are putting the reefs under increasing stress and making it hard for coral to grow and survive.
Is coral an animal or a plant?
Coral is an animal. It belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, which also includes other animals such as jellyfish and sea anemones.
Corals are colonial organisms, made up of many genetically identical individual polyps. Each polyp has a mouth surrounded by tentacles that it uses to capture small planktonic animals and other food particles.
The polyps also secrete a hard exoskeleton of calcium carbonate, which forms the basis of the coral reef ecosystem.
Corals do not possess any chlorophyll, so they cannot produce their own food by photosynthesis like plants do, instead they have symbiotic relationship with a type of algae called zooxanthellae which lives inside the coral polyp and provides them with some of their food.
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