Coral Basics
The tiny animals that build coral reefs.
What are coral polyps?
The main trigger of coral bleaching
What is ocean warming?
The three forces needed for coral growth: warm, clear and __________ waters.
What are shallow waters?
The approximate size (length) of Great Barrier Reef.
What are 2300 kilometres?
The strategy that reduces warming and bleaching at the global scale.
What are carbon-emission reductions?
The hard material polyps secrete to form reefs.
What is calcium carbonate?
The reason bleached corals appear white.
What is the loss of zooxanthellae algae?
A reef that grows directly along a coastline.
What is a fringing reef?
The percentage of shallow-water coral cover lost due to climate-linked bleaching.
What is ~50%?
The long-term goal shared by scientists and policymakers for coral ecosystems.
What is building coral resilience for future recovery?
The algae that provide about 90% of a coral's food and give coral its color.
What are zooxanthellae?
Bleaching doesn’t always mean coral death, but it does cause this harmful condition.
What is starvation or stressed corals?
The protected zone behind the crest that forms a calm habitat.
What is the back-reef or lagoon?
Two effects of climate change besides warming that threaten the reef.
What are coastal pollution and overfishing?
Areas where fishing and pollution are restricted to help reefs recover.
What are marine protected areas?
The mutualistic partnership between coral reefs and zooxanthellae algae that provides energy for reef growth
Repeated bleaching leads to this long-term risk for coral ecosystems.
What is reduced resilience and ecosystem collapse?
The reef zone that faces the open ocean and strong wave action.
What is the fore-reef?
The percentage of the impact repeated mass bleaching events have had on shallow-water coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef.
What is a loss of up to about 50%?
Local reef restoration method using nursery-grown coral.
What is coral gardening?
The animals that build hard calcium carbonate skeletons and form colonies that make up the structure of coral reefs
What are coral polyps?
A kind of pollution that increases coral stress by blocking light and smothering polyps.
What is sediment runoff?
A circular reef structure surrounding a lagoon, usually formed after land sinks.
What is an atoll?
Type of fish whose removal leads to algae overgrowth and coral decline.
What are herbivorous fish?
The 2 reason saving reefs helps humans too.
What is food and job security?