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Make a hypothesis (educated guess) about what will happen.
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Show Legend
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Trophic Level:
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Producers make their own food. WhyReef's most common producers are plants, which make their food using sunlight.
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Herbivores only eat plants (producers).
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Lower Omnivores eat plants (producers) and smaller animals.
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Upper Omnivores eat plants (producers) and bigger animals.
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Lower Carnivores only eat other animals. WhyReef's lower carnivores usually eat smaller animals.
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Upper Carnivores only eat other animals. WhyReef's upper carnivores are likely to eat bigger animals.
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Corals are the most bizarre creatures on WhyReef! They are so weird, they actually get
their own trophic level. Here's why: They are animals (not plants!), and they are carnivores.
But they have tiny plants in their cells (which they don't eat -- they are NOT herbivores)
that make food for them (which they do eat). Corals are crazy, right?
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Hide Legend
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The temperature of the water near the reef has increased by 2°C. This is making the corals stressed and they are spitting out their zooxanthellae (ZOE-zahn-thelly) plant partners. Corals get a lot of their food and bright color from their zooxanthellae, so now they are hungry and look like they have been bleached white. The corals can't grow without food and some start to die. What do you think will happen to the reef?
I hypothesize that
population(s) will decrease.
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