Marine Environmentalists

Your specialized experience in researching, designing, and maintaining a 100,000 gallon tank reef exhibit qualifies you to speak about the coral reef as a community. You are keenly aware of the interdependence among species that exist in an ecosystem.. What affects one portion of the ecosystem can have drastic effects on the other portion. Scavengers and parasitic /symbiotic relationships are the essence of your work. Your extensive expertise and experience qualifies you to speak of the role that each species play in the underwater community. You are aware of what governments and organizations are doing to preserve the coral reefs.

Research Questions for the Marine Environmentalists

1. What is a coral reef? What is it composed of? In what parts of the world are reefs usually located?

2. How are reefs usually formed? What does a volcano have to do with a coral reef?

3. What is an atoll and what is its relationship to a coral reef?

4. What are the major types of reefs that exist in the world, and where are they located?

5. Discuss the reef as an ecosystem, detailing the interdependence of the individual species.

6. Choose at least three organizations which are researching reefs and give detailed descriptions of their efforts to preserve them.

Internet Sites

For the Internet portion of your WebQuest you will follow these links specifically chosen for your topic.

Coral in Danger and Dying http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/1627/coral.htm

Coral Reefs http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/students/f95/starmoss/coral.htm

Hawaii Coral Reef Network http://www.coralreefs.hawaii.edu/

Marine Plants of Hawaii http://www2.hawaii.edu/~tissot/seaweeds/seaweeds.htm

Coral Reefs and Biodiversity http://www.aloha.net/~sos/Talbot.html

Coral Reefs http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/sci/reef.html