1. First you will need to find out more about corals’ life cycles to do this please visit after watching the video complete the “Coral Life Cycle Diagram” below by cutting out the pieces and correctly ordering pictures and phrases on the diagram.

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Captions to place below pictures[LS2]:

Planula larvea developes and drifts with currents / Egg meets sperm / Colony sexually matures in 4-5 years / Planulae settles and polyp begins to develop laying down a skeleton / Colony begin to grow through polyp budding / Development of zygote / Release of sperm and egg bundles from mature corals
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  1. You are asked to discover the relationship that exists between the coral and the algae using the resources provided to you. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/coral02_zooxanthellae.html

http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcorals/coral101/symbioticalgae/

  1. What is the name of the algae that is contained within the coral structures?
  2. In a couple sentences, please describe the symbioticsis relationship that exists between the two organisms.

c.Describe the process, which occurs if the algae leave the coral structure?

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  1. To better understand how climate change affects the corals specifically in the heating of the ocean waters review the following resources. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html and
  2. Describe the process that occurs if the algae leave the coral structure.
  3. Describe how the corals are impacted whenis seawater temperatures reach above a temperature certain threshold.
  4. Can Is there a way that corals can recover from a bleaching event?, Iif so, how?

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  1. Review pPictures and video at the bottom of the following webpage, which comparesd healthy corals versus s unhealthy corals.
  1. Determine the differences in the structure, besides color, what else is different about the corals?

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  1. To understand more about how Global Climate Change is impacting our reef systems visit http://coralreef.noaa.gov/issues/climatechange.htmlhttp://coralreef.noaa.gov/threats/climate/
  2. What climate-induced factors are contributing to coral reef threats?

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  1. Visit http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleaching5km/index_5km_baa_max_r07d.php
  2. Which global regions are currently experiencing “Alert Level 1 or 2” currently?

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  1. Let’s take a closer look at Florida by visiting http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/vs/timeseries/florida.php#florida_keys

Using the drop down tool on the right-hand side, look at the graph data for all 2-year periods.

  1. What month(s) were the warmest for 2013-2014, what was the highest recorded Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for that period?
  2. What month(s) were the warmest for 2014-2015 what was the highest recorded Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for that period?
  3. What month(s) were the warmest for 2015-2016 what was the highest recorded Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for that period?
  4. At any point during those peak SST periods was the bleaching threshold ever reached? If so, when and what was the oC?

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  1. Florida has been particularly susceptible to coral threats recently. Rread the following article:
  2. Where ins Florida did the described bleaching event occur?
  3. What two corals, impacted impacted by the event, are currently on the “Endangered Species List”?

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  1. How can humans help mitigate (decrease the severity of) threats to our coral reefs?

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[LS1]Increased size of life cycle diagram and added directions for where the first ‘step’ of the cycle should be placed.

[LS2]More directions.

[LS3]Replaced one picture for another that matches captions better.

[LS4]Placed pieces that should be cut on a separate page so that other pages are not cut up.