What are the main biotic features of coral reefs and why are coral reefs important for ocean ecosystem?
Coral reefs form a long food chain (increase biodiversity) and increase the biomass of the ecosystem. In addition, coral reefs provide shelter for fish. It is also useful for a person because he consumes food from this food chain. Coral reefs have an aesthetic resource that attract tourists and improve the investment climate in some countries. At the same time, coral reefs are a navigational hazard. Vessels sink on the reefs, cargo is destroyed and people die.
Not everything is perfect in this life.
The coral reef ecosystem is made up of biotic and abiotic factors. The biotics factors are plants, crabs, fish, and coral. These biotic factors create multiple food webs in this ecosystem. The abiotic factors are water, temperature, sunlight, salt, and waves. Coral reefs provide habitat for a large variety of marine life, including various sponges, oysters, clams, crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, and many species of fish. Coral reefs are also linked ecologically to nearby sea grass, mangrove, and mudflat communities Because of the diversity of life found in the habitats created by corals, reefs are often the "rainforests of the sea." About 25% of the ocean's fish depend on healthy coral reefs. Fishes and other organisms’ shelter, find food, reproduce, and rear their young in the many nooks and crannies formed by corals. They are the important reef builders and inhabit the oceans. They build reefs which secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. Coral reefs form some of the world's most productive ecosystems, providing complex and varied marine habitats that support a wide range of organisms. Healthy coral reefs support commercial and subsistence fisheries as well as jobs and businesses through tourism and recreation. Approximately half of all federally managed fisheries depend on coral reefs and related habitats for a portion of their life cycles. Besides zooxanthellae, algae and seagrasses are the main types of plants in the coral reef ecosystem. These plants give food and oxygen to the animals that live on the reef. Seagrasses are especially important because they provide shelter for juvenile reef animals like conch and lobster. Shallow water, reef-building corals have a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae, which live in their tissues. The coral provides a protected environment and the compounds zooxanthellae need for photosynthesis.
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