Coral Reef Destruction Magazine June 2014 | Page 10

Many species cannot survive without coral

Living coral

The zooxanthellae living in the soft tissue of a coral polyp use sunlight to produce food through photosynthesis and create a byproduct that the coral can use as food. Thus, zooxanthellae provide corals with food; in return, the coral provides the zooxanthellae with shelter and nutrients. (9)

Coral reefs protect shores from the impact of waves and from storms and provides benefits to humans in the form of food and medicine. (5) They are the indicator species of the ocean, when they die, a catostrophic change will likely follow. Anything with a shell will be suseptable to the chemicals and the food chain will slowly unravel.

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If the oceans lost all of their coral reefs, their would be large empty sections underwater where nothing gorws and no animals live.

There would be nothing for miles, and the water would be hot and acidic. Corals are the base of the oceanic ecosystem. A large quantity of all the animals in the oceans live in coral reefs.