What animals live in the Barrier Reef?

What animals live in the Barrier Reef?

The Great Barrier Reef is a refuge for many species of conservation concern. These species of conservation concern include inshore dolphins, whales, dugongs, sawfish, sea snakes, marine turtles and some fish and sharks.

How many species live in the coral reef?

Coral reef diversity This area supports more than 7,000 species of fishes, invertebrates, plants, sea turtles, birds, and marine mammals.

Is the Great Barrier Reef a living organism?

Stretching for 1,429 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles , the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. …

What organism lives inside coral?

algae

How do you explain coral to a child?

Lesson Summary Coral is a small animal that lives in warm water and attaches itself to rocks, with some types building a hard skeleton. Coral polyps create new polyps that also build hard skeletons and join together to form big groups called coral reefs that more than 25% of all ocean animals need to survive.

Why is it called coral reef?

Coral reefs are large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of colonial marine invertebrates called coral. Each individual coral is referred to as a polyp. Coral polyps live on the calcium carbonate exoskeletons of their ancestors, adding their own exoskeleton to the existing coral structure.

What percent of the ocean is coral reefs?

Coral reefs are the most diverse habitats on the planet. Reefs occur in less than 1 percent of the ocean, yet are home to nearly one-quarter of all ocean species.

What 4 effects on the food chain does ocean acidification have?

Ocean acidification also makes it difficult for crabs, oysters and urchins to build the shells they need to survive. Some hatcheries have lost 80% of their oyster production. When the small animals die off, there’s less food for larger fish and marine mammals. Pteropods, for instance, make up 60% of pink salmon diet.