What are corals? Give two importance of corals.
Answers
Answer:
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.
Corals have tiny, tentacle-like arms that they use to capture their food from the water and sweep into their inscrutable mouths. Most structures that we call "coral" are, in fact, made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps.
importance of corals :
They: protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms. provide habitats and shelter for many marine organisms. are the source of nitrogen and other essential nutrients for marine food chains.