Zooxanthellae needs shelter so it sticks to corals and corals get food ,nutrients from zooxanthallae. Zooxanthellae lives on soft tissues of corals and uses sunlight to produce food by photosynthesis and create a by product food that corals can have as a food.It's called Symbiotic relationship.
How do corals get food
Corals get food in two ways.One is through Zooxanathallae.Other is during night,corals stretch out their tentacles to catch very small micro organisms.
Where do corals live
Most of the corals live in shallow warm waters that receive plenty of light.They live in waters close to the warmest temperatures they can tolerate.That's the reason why climate change affects many underwater species.
What lives on Coral reefs.
Turtles,algae,urchins etc make corals as a home as corals provide shelter and protection from many predators.
To escape from predators,many organisms live on the cracks and cervices of reef created by corals.
Many invertebrates and living organisms under water are in symbiotic relationship as one organism gets benefit from other just by staying together .And its a complex food web.
Many types of clams live long and grow big on corals.Clownfish and sea anemones are perfect pairs.
Sea anemones are immobile so they wait for the prey to swim by and using its poisonous tentacles it catches shrimps etc.As clownfish is immune to sea anemone's poisonous tentacles and live happily along with sea anemone as it does not eat sea anemone so clown fish pose no threat to it.Clownfish actually eats predators that live on sea anemone so these two live in a symbiotic relationship.
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| Clam |
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| Clown fish on sea anemone |
Bleaching occurs as the conditions necessary to sustain the zooxanthellae on coral cannot be maintained.There are many factors trigger coral bleaching.One of the top most reason is increase or decrease in water temperature.
As water temperature increases,zooxanthellae leaves corals and hence corals looks like bleached.Eventually it dies as it starves from food.
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| Healthy corals |
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| Bleached Corals |
How can we humans help coral reefs
1.Reduce,Reuse and Recycle trash
2.Reduce the consumption of natural water so that more water remains in natural streams
E.g: Stop the habit of leaving the tap open while brushing teeth,while applying face wash,using too much water for washing utensils
And we Indians are collectively doing something wrong,that is not taking up the lever back to the normal position even after enough water is flushed down in toilet.If we leave it down just like that thinking the lever will go up on its own then it will waste too much of water on already cleaned commode.
3.Prefer to go office by walk,cycle,carpool or public transportation.It reduces Greenhouse gas.
Check this post about Global warming.
For further reading,please do visit this site
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