Animal profile

Reef-building Coral

AnthozoaWarm, clear, sunlit shallow tropical seas

Field profile

Reef-building corals are colonial stony anthozoans that deposit aragonite skeletons. They host single-celled algae in their tissues and depend on them for most of their energy. Together these corals build the largest biological structures on the planet.

Published field notes

2023-11-19

Reef-building Coral

Bleached coral is starving, not dead

A bleached coral has expelled the algae living in its tissues, which is where its colour and most of its food came from. The animal is alive and white because its skeleton shows through. Whether it survives depends on how long the heat lasts.

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