CFT 3: Introduction to corals

Part of the Coral Finder Toolkit Training Movie Series

Don’t forget to click on the full screen icon at the bottom right of the movie player.

Contents:  why should we care about corals?  -  corals as keystones  -  threats and risks  -  lack of coral identification capacity  -  the Coral Finder Toolkit  -  genus vs species  -  unique characteristics  -  the genus as a natural learning group  -  role of genus level information in assessing reef health and status  -  ”seeing the species”, the road to species level identification  -  an introduction to corals  -  what is a hard coral?  -  polyps  -  skeleton  -  six fold symmetry  -  coral anatomy and the glossary page of the Coral Finder  -  the bridge between underwater and topside coral world  -  the terms you need to know  -  the polyp’s tissue and skeleton  -  terms associated with the polyp’s tissue  -  terms associated with the coral skeleton  -  exceptions to the rule  -  role of ornament  -  using the Coral Finder’s terms to uniquely describe a coral genus  -  recognising and ignoring  the exception’s to the rule  -  bringing it all together  -  overcoming variation with environment  -  towards species identification  -  terminology primer at the Coral Hub.