Q:- Is Coral a plant or animal?
-> Animal...
Coral might look like rock or plants but they are made up of tiny, fragile animals called coral polyps. Each animal, called a polyp, has a hard skeleton and a soft body. This is attached to rock, or to the skeletons of dead polyps. What we sometimes see as flowers actually are the tentacles with which they capture food from water. Corals belong to th
e biological kingdom of Animalia because it relies on other animals for food (heterotrophy).
Corals live very close to the highest temperatures they can tolerate, and only need a small increase in temperature to kill them. When polyps die, these tough outer cases build on top of one another over the centuries forming the framework of massive coral reef. Big, colorful coral reef is found only in tropical and semitropical seas, such as Red sea. Coral reefs grow best at 7-20 meters below the surface of the sea, in clean water at 25-29 degree Celsius.
Current estimates suggest that reefs could take hundreds of years to recover. The loss of these fragile ecosystems would cost billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism and fishing industries, as well as damage to coastal regions that are currently protected by the coral reefs that line most tropical coastlines.
-> Animal...
Coral might look like rock or plants but they are made up of tiny, fragile animals called coral polyps. Each animal, called a polyp, has a hard skeleton and a soft body. This is attached to rock, or to the skeletons of dead polyps. What we sometimes see as flowers actually are the tentacles with which they capture food from water. Corals belong to th
e biological kingdom of Animalia because it relies on other animals for food (heterotrophy).Corals live very close to the highest temperatures they can tolerate, and only need a small increase in temperature to kill them. When polyps die, these tough outer cases build on top of one another over the centuries forming the framework of massive coral reef. Big, colorful coral reef is found only in tropical and semitropical seas, such as Red sea. Coral reefs grow best at 7-20 meters below the surface of the sea, in clean water at 25-29 degree Celsius.
The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland in Australia is the largest reef in the world. It stretches for 3000 km and covers an area of 344,400 sq km. The Great Barrier Reef has taken at least 15 million years to get its present size. The reef is so big that it can be seen from Moon. Thousands of tiny island in the Pacific Ocean are made entirely of Coral.
It will be interesting to know that Lakshadweep is a group of beautiful islands that is probably the one and the only chain of coral islands in the Indian sub-continent.
Coral reefs are useful to the environment and people in numerous ways.
For example,
It will be interesting to know that Lakshadweep is a group of beautiful islands that is probably the one and the only chain of coral islands in the Indian sub-continent.
Coral reefs are useful to the environment and people in numerous ways.
For example,
- they Protect shores from the impact of waves and from storms;
- Provide a lot of benefits to humans in the form of food
and medicine; - Provide economic benefits to local communities from tourism.
Current estimates suggest that reefs could take hundreds of years to recover. The loss of these fragile ecosystems would cost billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism and fishing industries, as well as damage to coastal regions that are currently protected by the coral reefs that line most tropical coastlines.
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