What is the main food source in the Great Barrier Reef?

What is the main food source in the Great Barrier Reef?

The algae use photosynthesis to harness solar energy to make sugars. In this way, the algae provide food and oxygen (a byproduct of photosynthesis) for the coral, and the coral protects and provides nutrients for the algae.

What are two food chains of the coral reef?

The coral reef food chain

• Primary consumers. This starts with the photosynthetic organisms such as seaweed and zooxanthellae (algae).
• Secondary consumers. Next up the reef food chain are the carnivorous fish classified as secondary consumers.
• Tertiary consumers.

What are 3 food chains in the Great Barrier Reef?

Seagrass, phytoplankton, and seaweeds are the producers. Primary consumers like clams, shrimp, zooplankton, and small fish eat the producers. Larger fish, rays, and octopi are the secondary consumers, and sharks are the ultimate predator in this ecosystem, eating many types of primary and secondary consumers.

What eats coral in the Great Barrier Reef?

In addition to weather, corals are vulnerable to predation. Fish, marine worms, barnacles, crabs, snails and sea stars all prey on the soft inner tissues of coral polyps.

Can u eat coral?

Most coral reefs are found in areas where there are a lot of people, leading many to wonder if corals are edible. After all, some fish eat coral, so are they safe for human consumption? You can’t eat coral because it’s as hard as a rock, which would be bad for your teeth, esophagus, and digestive system.

Will starfish eat coral?

Normally, the starfish contribute to the reef’s diversity by eating faster-growing coral species, which allow for slower-growing species to thrive. But at outbreak levels, the starfish are able to eat coral — a polyp that builds the limestone reefs on which they communally live — faster than the coral can reproduce.