• Question: Does coral photosynthesize, and, if it doesn't, how does it survive?

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Greig Cowan

      Greig Cowan answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Coral doesn’t photosynthesize directly. Rather, they have photosynthesizing bacteria within their tissue that provides them with energy. Obviously for this they need to be closer to the surface of the water so that they get enough sunlight. Some coral live in deeper water and are able to catch plankton and small fish to eat.

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Corals don’t photosynthesize, because they are not plants, they are animals. They are actually made of an tiny animal called ‘polyp’ that cluster in large groups, and which are part the same group of animals as sea anemones and jellyfish. The difference is that corals have an exoskeletons, which means that their skeleton is outside of their body, a bit like a crab.

      Like Greig said, the trick here is that corals are home to a HUGE amount of different species of living things. They cover just 0.1% of the sea floor, but they host 25% of all marine species! And one of them is the unicellular algal protists Greig was mentioning, with which they have a symbiotic relation (sea anemones and jellyfish have the same algae in their skin). They actually get 90% of their food from this algae.

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Coral is an animal, and some use things like photosynthesising algae inside its cells to provide energy to the coral. In return the algae gets to use the CO2 and waste material from the coral.
      Other types of coral actually catch and eat small fish and other marine animals for their energy!

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