Biome

Coral Reef

Marine and Coastal Biomes

A coral reef is a shallow, sunlit marine biome built up over centuries by colonies of coral polyps, tiny animals that secrete calcium carbonate skeletons and live in a close mutual partnership with photosynthetic algae housed in their own tissue. Reefs form mainly in warm, clear, nutrient-poor tropical and subtropical waters, most extensively in the Indo-Pacific, and their structural complexity supports an estimated quarter of all known marine species despite covering well under one percent of the ocean floor. Reefs are highly sensitive to warming water, acidification, sedimentation and pollution, and large-scale coral bleaching events have become a defining threat to the biome worldwide.

Facts

Climate

Typical Low Temperature (C)

18 1

Reef-building corals cannot tolerate water below about 18C; this is the source's own stated survival floor, not a seasonal low.

Typical High Temperature (C)

29 1

29C is the top of the 23-29C range most reef corals grow optimally in; some corals tolerate brief spikes to 40C but that is bleaching-inducing stress, not typical. Annual precipitation is left unfilled: a reef is fully submerged and the source itself states there is no direct precipitation on the reef, only on the water and coastline around it.

Disputed

Annual Precipitation (mm)

990 2

990mm is the source global ocean+land blended figure; the source does not isolate a coral-reef-specific figure. Reefs are shallow, surface-exposed tropical marine systems, so the same global ocean blend already used on the Marine and Open Ocean biome entities is applied here.

Coral Reef

1 entry

in-ecosystem

Everyday Group

Diet

System (Realm)

Clownfish

Coral Reef

Connections