Important Words to Know

Directions: Use these definitions to help you understand the worksheets and handouts, as well as to prepare your class assignments.

Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is the chemical process by which sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, and other inorganic materials are combined and converted into glucose, a sugar that is used for energy. Oxygen and other organic nutrients are released as waste products of this process.

Coral polyp: The tiny, soft, pouch-like animal body of coral.

Zooxanthellae: A microscopic, unicellular algae that lives inside coral polyps and produces nutrients that the polyps use for food and building their outer skeleton.

Symbiosis: A relationship between two separate organisms in which they live together to the benefit of at least one of the organisms.

Commensalism: A relationship between two separate organisms in which they live together to the benefit of both organisms, with little interference to each other.

Calcium carbonate: Used to build the hard, outer skeleton around a coral polyp.

Crown-of-thorns starfish: An organism that feeds on coral polyps and can become a destructive presence on the coral reef if its numbers grow too large. It is covered with poisonous spines.