1) Coral reefs contain a diverse array of plant and animal life, providing habitat for over 4,000 species of fish and 800 species of hard coral. 2) Major groups that inhabit coral reefs include vertebrates like fish, sea turtles, and sea snakes as well as invertebrates like sponges, echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans, and worms. 3) Coral reef plants and algae play an important ecological role through primary production and providing food and habitat for other organisms, and include seagrasses, mangroves, and various macroscopic seaweeds.

1. Plants and Animals
Associates with Coral Reef
Presented to
Dr. S.R. Somashekara
Associate Professor
Dept. of Fisheries Resources and Management

3. Associated Plants and Animals
Both living corals and their skeletons provide wonderful microhabitat for
many other organisms.

4. Coral reefs contain the
most diverse fish
assemblages to be
found anywhere on
earth,
as 6,000-8,000 species
that can be found
dwelling within
coral reef
ecosystems of the
world's oceans

5. Diversity of Coral reefs
• Reefs are home to a large variety of organisms, including
• Fish,
• Seabirds,
• Sponges,
• Cnidarians (which includes some types of corals and jellyfish),
• Worms,
• Crustaceans (including shrimp, cleaner shrimp, spiny lobsters and crabs),
• Mollusks (including cephalopods),
• Echinoderms (including starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers),
• Sea turtles and
• Sea snakes.
• Plants etc..

6. • Coral reefs are essential spawning, nursery, breeding, and feeding grounds
for numerous organisms.
• Coral reefs support more than 800 hard coral species and more than 4,000
species of fish.
• Over 25 percent of the world's fish biodiversity, and between nine and 12
percent of the world's total fisheries, are associated with coral reefs
• By one estimate, biodiversity value accounts for $5.5 billion of the total
estimated annual global net benefit of coral reefs.

7. Two major groups of animals inhabit coral reefs:
• Animals with backbones (called vertebrates) and those
• Without these structures (called invertebrates).

8. Vertebrate Coral Reef Animals
Among vertebrate animals, only a relative few groups contain species
that are regularly found within coral reef communities.
These are:
• Fishes
• Sea Snakes
• Sea Turtles
• Dugongs etc..

9. Fishes
Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst
or in close relation to coral reefs.
Habitat: They are home to 33% of all known
fish species.
Nursery: And a nursery ground for over 25%
of all marine species.
Protection: they protect 20% of the world’s
coast from wave erosion.

11. Reef fish adaptations
Colouration
Most reef fishes have body shapes that are different from open water fishes.
Open water fish are usually built for speed in the open sea, streamlined like
torpedoes to minimise friction as they move through the water.
Coral reef fishes exhibit a huge variety of dazzling and sometimes bizarre colours
and patterns.
This is in marked contrasts to open water fishes which are usually counter
shaded with silvery colours.
Body Shapes

12. Feeding strategies
Many reef fish species have evolved different feeding strategies-
-specialized mouths, jaws and teeth particularly suited to deal with their
primary food sources found in coral reef ecosystems.
Some species even shift their dietary habits and distributions as they mature.
Generalized carnivores
Specialised carnivores

13. Herbivores
Herbivores feed on plants.
The largest groups of coral reef
fishes that feed on plants are
the parrotfishes,
rabbitfishes, and
surgeonfishes.
All feed primarily on microscopic
and macroscopic algae growing on
or near coral reefs.

14. Symbiosis
Symbiosis refers to two species that have a close relationship with each other.
The relationship can be mutualistic, when both species benefit from the
relationship, commensalistic, when one species benefits and the other is unaffected,
and parasitistic, when one species benefits, and the other is harmed.

15. Sea Snakes
• There are between 55-65 recognized species of
sea snakes, but of these only a relative few are
commonly found in coral reef areas.
• Sea snakes are found only in the Indo-Pacific
region

16. Sea Turtles
• Of the seven recognized species of sea turtles,
three are regular or occasional visitors to coral
reefs in some parts of the world.
• The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) also
frequents coral reef ecosystems of both the
Greater Caribbean and Indo-Pacific regions.
• This species feeds primarily on the seagrasses
found in protected back reef lagoons.

17. Dugongs
• These peaceful giants - related to elephants -
consume prodigious quantities of seagrasses,
and
• most prolific herbivores in coral reef lagoons
• prior to recent levels of human interference with
these ecosystems.
• It is feared that they may soon become extinct.

18. Invertebrate Coral Reef Animals
• Sponges
• Echinoderms
• Mollusks
• Crustaceans
• Polychaetes

19. Sponges
• Sponges are primitive animals that filter feed on tiny food particles
carried in the water sweeping over them.

20. Echinoderms
• The name "Echinoderm" literally means "spiny-skinned", a trait that
shared by all members of the group.

21. Sea stars
• "starfish", are often found in sand and
seagrass habitat around coral reefs as well
as upon the hard reef substrate.

22. Sea Urchins
• Sea Urchins (Class Echinoidea) are
active grazing herbivores and are
among the most common of all coral
reef echinoderms.

23. Mollusks
• Coral reef mollusks are mainly benthic (bottom dwelling) invertebrates,
but there are a few open water swimmers included as well.
• Gastropods (snails)
• Bivalves (clams, mussels, scallops)
• Cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopus)

24. Crustaceans
• Coral reef crustaceans include the large, more familiar animals such as
shrimps, lobsters, and crabs, as well as many smaller or cryptic types like
amphipods, stomatopods, and copepods.

25. Coral fish diversity in Netrani waters
• Balistidae family dominated in all the
four sites (22 %) followed by
Pomacentridae (12.5 %),
• Caesionidae (9.7 %),
• Labridae (7.8 %),
A total of 69 species belonging to
39 genera,
19 families and
3 orders

26. Coral Reef Plants
• The term "coral reef plants" is
generally used to refer to all
photosynthetic life forms (other than
bacteria) commonly found within
coral reef ecosystems.

27. • Imp. Plants-
• Mangroves and
• Seagrasses
that are often closely associated with coral reefs.
• Both groups are capable of rapid growth and high production rates,
and thus of making a substantial contribution to the food webs of coral
reef systems.
• By trapping suspended sediments and slowing water movement these
plants also benefit nearby coral reefs by reducing sediment loads in
the water.

28. Seagrasses
• Seagrasses are most often found
in shallow, sheltered marine or
estuarine waters.
• They are the only type of
angiosperm (flowering plant) to
successfully colonize the sea.

29. Mangroves
• Mangroves are a unique group of
large shrub-like plants that grow
in thick, physically complex
"forests" that line many tropical
and sub-tropical shores.

30. Coral Reef "Algae"
• A variety of algae is always present in coral reef ecosystems; in fact, a
few types are essential to the survival of corals and the formation of
coral reefs.
• These diverse life forms were once classified as "plants", but that is no
longer the case.

31. Seaweeds: Macroscopic Reef Algae
• Large, multicellular forms of marine algae are commonly called
"seaweeds".
• These algal forms are widely distributed within coral reef ecosystems,
where they occur as one of three main types based on color:
• green,
• red, and
• brown.

32. • Green algae (Chlorophyta) are most
common in shallow reef areas.
• These seaweeds are often found on
rocky reef surfaces as well as on
unconsolidated (sand) substrates.

33. • Red algae (Rhodophyta) are
comparatively close relatives of the
green algae.
• These forms may be found from the
shallowest reef flats to depths
exceeding 150 ft.

34. Ecological Role of Coral Reef Plants
• The taxonomically diverse array of
photosynthetic life forms introduced
above are responsible for coral reef
"primary production" (the creation of
"new" biomass from simple inorganic
pre-cursors).

35. Thank You