As you will recall from the Ecological Monitoring Program Course, corals are part of the phylum called Cnidaria, along with the hydroids (Hydrozoa), and jellyfish (Scyphozoa and Cuboza). Sea anemones, soft corals, corallimorphs, and zoanthids make up the class Anthozoa alongside the hard corals, which are known as the order Scleractinia. The order has gone […]
Learning the substrate survey will help you to view the reef in a more objective way, instead of seeing the reef as a single state, you will be able to infer the history and project the future state of the reef after only a single visit In this lesson you will learn how to assess […]
“The most conspicuous animals on the reefs are the fish, like us, they are a part of the chordate phylum. Fish are our distant cousins, which could explain why divers have such an attraction to them” In this lesson we will introduce you to the last animal phylum, the Chordates. This phylum includes all animals […]
Invertebrate phyla are the most diverse and abundant on Earth, they are the ancestors of all higher life, and the first to evolve many of the body parts we take for granted. In this lesson you will learn about The evolution of invertebrates the phylogenic tree of lie The importance of many invertebrate indicator species […]
Learning the methods and techniques for monitoring will help you further understand reef relationships, and how to view the reef in a more objective way. For monitoring programs like the EMP, data is collected on reef ecology using what are called indicator species. These are species which tell us something about the physical or biological […]
While we can learn about the various themes in ecology and evolutionary biology in any ecosystem, coral reefs are one of the best places to observe and study these interactions. This is because coral reefs are one of the planet’s oldest, most diverse, and most productive ecosystems. With 8-9 million species living in them, everybody […]
This course is designed to give experienced divers an opportunity to learn about coral reefs, perform a reef survey, and add to data sets used to monitor coral reefs. By increasing awareness and involvement, we can decrease our impacts on coral reefs and provide solutions to protecting and restoring the reefs around the globe. Most […]