Oceans
Explainer: What are corals?
Though they can look like rocks or plants, corals are animals. Most are made up of colonies of individuals called polyps.
MS-LS2-1
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
More Stories in MS-LS2-1
- Ecosystems
Let’s learn about wetlands
Just how wet these lands are varies a lot — from seasonally soaked to permanently flooded.
- Life
After the dino-killer asteroid, life bounced back quickly
New ocean dwellers arrived millennia — maybe decades — after the Chicxulub impact. That forces a rethink of evolution's response to wipeout events.
- Animals
Polar bears leave thousands of tons of food scraps for other species
The new finding quantifies how much of polar bears' food goes uneaten. As these bears decline, Arctic scavengers risk losing a critical food source.
- Animals
Ants are better team players than people [COMIC]
For ants, teamwork makes the dream work. For humans, teamwork can be a trip-up.
- Animals
A shark encounter inspired this researcher’s career in marine biology
Heidy Martinez never wanted to study sharks as a kid. That changed after encountering a white shark in South Africa.
- Humans
These Korean women spend more time underwater than any other humans
At an average age of 70, these divers in South Korea still forage in the sea for up to 10 hours a day. They spend more than half of that time underwater.
- Environment
Scientists Say: Steppe
Expansive, windswept grasslands offer ample grazing for roaming herd animals and more.
- Animals
Whale pee is an ocean bounty
Some migrating cetaceans move thousands of miles to their breeding grounds, where whale urine fertilizes ocean waters with valuable nutrients.
- Animals
Analyze This: Moving frogs to new places helped an endangered species spread
Frogs resistant to a deadly fungus jump-started populations in these new areas.
