Coral reefs are made up of many different types of plants and animals, that all contribute to the reef they live in. They each eat specific kinds of foods, and they are all resources for each other. All the plants and animals living in a coral reef cannot survive without one another, and they all play a specific role in keeping a coral reefs environment balanced.
Everything in a coral reef is related to one another, whether it is a plant or animal. The members of a coral reefs community can be separated into the roles of producer, consumer, or decomposer. They can also be defined as being an autotroph or heterotroph. A producer is an organism that produces energy through the process of photosynthesis, a consumer is an organism that consumes energy by eating another organism, and a decomposer is an organism that decomposes organic materials. Each one of these roles is vital in keeping a balanced environment and ecosystem (“The Coral Reef Food Chain”).
Primary producers, or autotrophs, are very important because they are the base of a food chain, and all of the energy that other organisms need comes from them (Rose). In a coral reef, there are three major types of producers which are blue-green algae, seaweed, and reef-building corals. The reef-building corals have a relationship with tiny plant-like organisms known as zooxanthellae, which live in the tissues of coral. These organisms make coral reefs producers because the zooxanthellae makes energy through photosynthesis and gives it to the coral. Overall, you can say that most corals live off of sunlight (“The Coral Reef Food Chain”).
After a producer has gone through the process of photosynthesis, it then gets eaten by a consumer. In a coral reef, there are two main types of primary consumers, which are herbivores and carnivores. Herbivores are the animals that eat the plants, and carnivores are the animals that eat the animal that has consumed the plant. Primary consumers that live in a coral reef community are zooplankton, invertebrate larvae, benthic grazers, coral, sea urchins, crabs, green sea turtles, and herbivorous fish. Some of the secondary consumers that live in a coral reef are plankton feeders, corallivores, and benthic invertebrate feeders (Rose). In a coral reef environment, there are also many carnivores that eat coral in a coral reef, and they are known as corallivores. Sea urchins are a good example of a corallivore because it is an herbivore that is also a consumer. What makes them a consumer is the fact that they are constantly eating seaweed, which helps to maintain the seaweed so it does not overpopulate (“The Coral Reef Food Chain”).
After a consumer has died, a decomposer breaks down the dead organism and uses it as energy and other materials for the environment. One of the main decomposers in a coral reefs environment is bacteria. Bacteria in the coral reef play a big role in the nitrogen cycle. A bacterium converts the ammonia into nitrite, and then it converts it into nitrate. Decomposers are important in coral reef environments because of the great amount of biodiversity. Also, in a coral reef, scavengers also are decomposers. Some scavengers are sea cucumbers, snails, crabs, and bristle worms, which all eat the dead or other waste materials (“The Coral Reef Food Chain”).
Works Cited
“The Coral Reef Food Chain.” ThinkQuest. Education Foundation. Web. 24 April 2011.
Rose, Alex. “Coral Reef Ecology.” Coralscience.org. 2009. PDF. 25 April 2011.
This is a great example of the food cycle and the balance that is preserved in nature.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to remember how everything is connected and how we have the power to protect or destroy this precious system.
Humans would be categorized as consumers in this case, but how we play our role is almost like the destroyer. With education like this, hopefully we will be able to teach and uphold a preservation of our oceans and other bodies of water.