The list of organisms directly involved in this case have been narrowed to five groups. Provided for you are some general information about the organisms' eating habits, size, and other notes. Create a diagram showing the relationships between the organisms.

  • reef-building coral
  • predatory fish
  • herbivorous fish
  • Diadema antilllarum

 
  • macroalgae
  • local Jamaicans
  • tourists

 
CORAL

Reef-building coral

  • >60 species of reef-building corals occur around Jamaica; the following four species are most dominant
  • DIET: plankton and detritus (small broken pieces of dead plants and animals)
  • PREDATORS: parrotfish, butterflyfish, echinoderms, gastropods
  • DISTRIBUTION:
  • NOTE: colonial animal related to sea anemones and jellies; not all coral species build reefs

The four most important structural corals in Jamaica are:

  • Acropora palmata, branching elkhorn coral
  • Acropora cervicornis, branching staghorn coral
  • Montastrea annularis, massive or platelike, and are most important framework coral
  • Agaricia agaricites, encrusting or foliose
(www.coralreef.org/resources/photobank.html)
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REEF FISH

Predatory fish

  • include: sharks, lutjanids (snappers), carangids (jacks), ballistids (triggerfish), and serranids (groupers)
  • DIET: other reef fish
  • PREDATORS: other reef fish, humans
  • NOTE: Their large size make some of these fish target species for fishers

Herbivorous fish

  • include: scarids (parrotfish) and acanthurids (surgeonfish)
  • DIET: macroalgae
  • PREDATORS: other reef fish, humans
  • NOTE: These fish compete with sea urchins for macroalgae on the reef

(www.coralreef.org/resources/photobank.html)
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ECHINODERMS

Sea urchin, Diadema antillarum

  • DIET: macroalgae
  • PREDATORS: reef fish, .e.g ballistids (triggerfish), sparids (porgies), and batrachoidids (toadfish)
  • NOTE: a major herbivore on Caribbean reefs

 

 

 

 
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ALGAE
  • DIET: use sunlight, nitrogen, and phosphorous to produce its own food.
  • PREDATORS: herbivores
  • NOTE: benthic algae grow faster than reef-building coral, and thus can overgrow and smother corals if grazing is reduced.

 

 

 

 

 

(www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/algae_page/halimeda.htm)
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HUMANS

  • POPULATION: 2,652,689 (July 2000 est.)
  • ETHNIC GROUPS: black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%, mixed 7.3%, other 0.1%
  • RELIGIONS: Protestant 61.3% (Church of God 21.2%, Baptist 8.8%, Anglican 5.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 9%, Pentecostal 7.6%, Methodist 2.7%, United Church 2.7%, Brethren 1.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.6%, Moravian 1.1%), Roman Catholic 4%, other, including some spiritual cults 34.7%
  • LANGUAGES: English, Creole
  • INDUSTRIES: tourism, bauxite, textiles, food processing, light manufactures, rum, cement, metal, paper, chemical products
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This web site was created by Lynn Tran at the North Carolina State University, Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education on 7/12/03. Faculty advisor Dr. David Eggleston, NCSU, Department of Marine, Earth, & Atmospheric Sciences. Last updated December 29, 2003 .