Corals are tiny invertebrate animals that live together in colonies in warm shallow water. The term "invertebrate" means that they have no skeleton.
Corals build structures called reefs from calcium and carbon that they take from the sea water. Corals stay bin one place in the reef they have created for the rest of their lives.
An individual coral is also called a coral polyp.
A coral polyp
Conditions for Coral Reef Survival
Corals need the conditions to be just right in order to survive. Click on the link below to fnd out what conditioons that coral reefs need to survive.
What Do Coral Reefs Need to Survive?
Click read more to see the threats to coral reefs.
Threats to Coral Reefs
There are several threats to coral reefs. These can destroy the coral reefs or cause the tiny corals to die. Coral bleaching is one serious problem that is caused by water the is not the right temperature for corals. When the water gets too warm (for example by global warming) corals release the algae inside them.
Corals use the algae to help them get energy from the sunlight to stay alive. This algae is also the reason corals have many beautiful colours. Corals are naturally almost transparent or white but the algae has many colours and these colours are what we see when we see pretty corals.
Coral Bleaching
When the corals release the algae due to water that is too warm. They die and become white. This is called coral bleaching.
Follow the link below to see more threats to coral reefs...
Coral reefs: threats
There are three main types of coral reefs based on their shape and how they are constructed. These are shown below.
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