Crucial to coral health are colorful algae called zooxanthellae. These algae live in coral polyps, providing coral with its bright color. The zooxanthellae photosynthesize and pass the products to ...

This relationship between the zooxanthellae and the coral polyps is an excellent example of a mutually beneficial relationship, also known as symbiosis. Although they occupy less than 0.1% of the ...

An even smaller symbiotic relationship by size, but certainly not by importance, is between a coral polyp and its zooxanthellae. Coral colonies consist of anemone-like polyps that house ...

When marine heat waves strike, heat stress can make coral polyps bleach by expelling their symbiotic algae. These colorful "zooxanthellae" algae provide coral energy and nutrition from ...

Most hard corals grow thanks to a symbiotic relationship between the coral polyp and zooxanthellae - essentially algae - that through photosynthesis produce glucose, energy, to enable the hard corals ...

Pennekamp State Park—the nation's first coral-reef santcuary—protects a thriving ecosystem beneath the waves ...

A unique feature of coral reefs is the symbiotic relationship between coral polyps and zooxanthellae, microscopic algae that ...

Coral reefs are very much the rainforests of the oceans. Not only are they diverse communities, but the coral skeletons - like trees - contain potentially long term records of climate. Aa Aa Aa ...