Acropora Millepora
Acropora Millepora dominates the coral reefs of the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is known to occur throughout this region in shallow tropical waters from South Africa north to the Red Rea, east through the tropical western Pacific. This type of coral must have adequate light in order to thrive, which limits the habitat in which they can successfully live.
Acropora Millepora Physical Description
This coral is considered a hard coral. This species grows mostly vertically, which leads to a bushy morphology that is semi-erect. The polyps extend from vertical branch tips on an average of 1.2 to 1.5 cm. Modules that comprise a colony often show some degree of polymorphism. Like all coral, the polyps of Acropoa Millepora are social, sessile animals. Together they secrete the minerals that form the skeleton of their colony.
Acropora Millepora Food Habits
The main carbon requirements of Acropora Millepora is fulfilled by their symbiosis with unicellular algae. Dinoflagellates line the gastrovascular cavity of corals and contribute their photosynthetic products to the coral. However, many studies have shown that hermatypic corals are able to capture and ingest particulate food from varied sources. This coral also has the ability to be a suspension feeder.
Predation Of Acropora Millepora
The crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is the main and important predator of the Acropora Millepora. This starfish is regarded as a specialist coralivore, and preys on and most prefers this type of coral as one of its main sources of food.
Importance Of Acropora Millepora To Humans
A positive relationship has been found between the structural complexity of coral and the diversity of the reef fish that thrive there. Studies have suggested that the proportion of live coral cover in the Caribbean, East Asian, the Great Barrier Reef, and East Africa affects the fish abundance and species diversity in a positive way. It seems that not only do coral reefs containing Acropora Millepora provide humans with beautiful reefs to enjoy, they also serve a very important purpose of providing protection for coral feeders in the ocean.
Conservation Of Acropora Millepora
Coral colonies can be affected by either natural or human causes. Natural causes include competition, storm, and predation. Human causes include anchoring, overfishing, mining and pollution. Due to some of these reasons, this species is considered "Near Threatened" by the IUCN, based on the general decline of reef coral populations and predictions of increasing ocean temperatures.
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