Coral Reef Ocean Floor Underwater Plants

Offering vibrant colors and the greatest biodiversity of any marine ecosystem on the planet.

Coral reef ocean floor underwater plants. Jan 4 2017 learn how to paint a simple underwater ocean scene with a colorful coral reef tropical fish sea life. Many people consume it as delicacy such as nori. Encrusting coralline algae directly and often extensively cover geologic substrate. Each individual coral is called a polyp and the reef grows as.

Residing within the coral s tissues the microscopic algae are well protected and make use of the coral s metabolic waste products for photosynthesis the process by which plants make their own food. They are a deep water coral that make their homes in caves and other dark underwater spaces. With its extensive reef tract florida keys national marine sanctuary protects more than 50 species of coral including the federally protected staghorn and elkhorn corals. Prostrate kelps lie near and along the sea floor e g laminaria.

Seagrass is a rooted plant that requires a lot of light to thrive along the shallow waters of our world s coastlines. The coral species that build reefs are known as hermatypic or hard corals. Usually you will find sea weed in the depth between 8 m to 40 m but there are some species that could be found in the depth of 250 m. Most corals contain algae called zooxanthellae pronounced zo uh zan thuh lay which are plant like organisms.

Sea weed is the plants in the coral reef that is edible to eat. You can find sea weed all around the world and up to now there is no known poisoned sea weed. There are many common types of sea grass including manatee grass turtle grass and shoal grass all of which are varieties of a land plant that has evolved over the years in order to survive in salt water. Some coral reefs are so large they are even visible from outer space.

The national park service has ten parks with coral reefs. Coral reefs are large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of colonial marine invertebrates called coral. Scientists estimate that more than one million species of plants and animals are associated with coral reef ecosystems. Reefs in danger corals may look like rocks or plants but they are actually animals in the same family as jellyfish and anemones.

Coral reefs are amazing habitats. The benthic assemblage is composed of other algal species e g filamentous and foliose functional groups articulated corallines and sessile organisms along the ocean bottom.