The following questions are based on your reading assignment, the lecture, and the video productions, "Life on the Reef" and "City of Coral."

1. Coral reefs are sometimes referred to as the "jungles of the sea." What are five characteristics that reefs share with tropical rain forests?

2. By what three basic methods do corals acquire nutrients?

3. What is a "hard" or "stony" coral; a "soft" coral?

4. For what do reef-building corals depend upon their intracellular symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae)?

5. What resources do coral reefs provide their many denizens? (A denizen is an inhabitant.)

6. How do corals reproduce asexually? ... sexually?

7. What is the structure of each of the three recognized forms of coral
reef?

8. What do you suppose is the collective advantage of mass spawning of reef corals and other animals? (Collective advantage means advantage to all participant species, not just certain ones.)