Lesson content to follow:

Topic 1: The reef and beyond

  • Discriminate between the following groups of coral: Alcyonacea ‘soft corals’ and the two morphological groups within Scleractinia ‘hard corals’ — reef-forming/hermatypic and non-reef forming/ahermatypic.

  • Classify a specific coral to genus level only, using a relevant identification key.

  • Describe the anatomy of a typical reef-forming hard coral, including skeleton, corallite, coelenteron, coral polyp, tentacles, nematocyst, mouth and zooxanthellae.

  • Describe how the limestone skeleton of coral is built (i.e. when calcium ions [Ca2+] combine with carbonate ions [CO3 2–]) and is influenced by a variety of factors, e.g. concentration of ions, temperature, light and pH.

  • Describe the process of coral feeding, including night-feeding patterns and the function of nematocysts.

  • Identify and describe the symbiotic relationships in a coral colony, including polyp interconnections and zooxanthellae.

Science Inquiry

• Investigate the impact of water quality on reef health to infer connectivity within or between habitats. Consider the impacts qualitatively and quantitatively, using online, virtual or field data.

• Examine coral to determine genus (photo, online or field).

• Examine coral diversity using a transect technique (using online or field data).

• Assess the diversity of a reef system, e.g. using line intercept transects, quadrats, fish counts using underwater video survey techniques, benthic surveys, invertebrate counts and rugosity measurements.