COTS
Coral Bleaching
Threats
Reef Citizens
Geography
100
A species of starfish known for its many venomous spines.
What is the crown of thorns starfish?
100
This environmental stressor is the the main cause of coral bleaching.
What is heat?
100
Winds and storm surge from this weather event can damage coral reefs.
What is a hurricane?
100
This species of fish lives in anemones.
What are clownfish?
100
The only living structure visible from space.
What is the Great Barrier Reef?
200
This marine invertebrate is preyed upon by the crown of thorns starfish.
What is hard coral?
200
It is referred to bleaching because all the remains is the ghostly white of this structure.
What is the coral skeleton?
200
Agricultural runoff can lead to nutrification, which favors the growth of this organism that can overgrow corals.
What is fleshy algae (or macroalgae)?
200
This marine invertebrate plays a vital role in breaking down waste on the coral reef.
What are sea cucumbers?
200
The length of the Great Barrier Reef (+/- 400 miles).
What is 1400 miles?
300
This household chemical can be injected into crown of thorns starfish to euthanize them.
What is vinegar?
300
When corals bleach, they kick these out.
What are their symbionts?
300
Overfishing of what species could have led to this?
What are parrotfish? Really any grazer.
300
This kind of animal is one of the simplest multicellular organisms on earth.
What is a sponge?
300
Hard coral reefs constructed by the deep, cold tolerant coral Lophelia can be found of this U.S. state.
What is South Carolina?
Florida and Georgia work too!
400
This colossal snail is the major predator of crown of thorns starfish.
What is Triton's trumpet?
400
While not dead, bleached corals can be quickly overgrown by this.
What is fleshy algae (or macroalgae)?
400
This process is used to dig out and flatten the bottom of ports to make room for large vessels.
What is dredging?
400
This type of coral doesn't build a hard skeleton but serves an important role, filtering out plankton.
What is a sea fan?
400
The zone extending north and south of the equator that is home to coral reefs.
What are the Tropics?
500
This large triggerfish is one of the few predators of crown of thorns starfish.
What is the titan triggerfish?
500
While bleaching has been seen along the length of the Great Barrier Reef, this region has been spared the worst of the bleaching?
What is the southern Great Barrier Reef?
500
Death of this invertebrate in the 1980's led to massive algal overgrowth of coral reefs throughout the Caribbean.
What is the black spiny urchin (Diadema antillarum)?
500
These worms are festive citizens of coral reefs around the world.
What are Christmas tree worms?
500
Home to the northernmost tropical coral reef in the world, this Asian country is also home to the most populated city in the world.
What is Japan?