Filled with stunning animals and intricate polyp-algae colonies, coral reefs are often considered to be one of the world\u2019s most beautiful ecosystems, and receive thousands of tourists every year visiting to admire these complex habitats.<\/p>\n

How a common coral species could save coral reef<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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But what is coral made from, what is the \u2018coral bleaching\u2019 that we hear about in the news and what causes it, and what are the different types of reef?<\/p>\n
Conservationist and author Mark Carwardine discusses how coral reefs are formed and species to look out for:<\/p>\n
What is coral?<\/h2>\n
It may look like a plant but\u00a0it is an animal, related to sea anemones. A tiny, soft-bodied creature called a \u2018polyp\u2019, it lives with thousands of other polyps to form a colony.<\/p>\n
So-called hard coral polyps extract calcium carbonate from the seawater and use\u00a0it to build exoskeletons to protect themselves. They build on the exoskeletons of their ancestors and, as the centuries pass, the coral\u00a0reef slowly grows.<\/p>\n
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