While coral reefs account for only 1 percent of earth's marine environment, more than 25 percent of marine life lives within them. Similarly, rainforests cover only 6 percent of the earth's land masses, while some 50 percent of plant and animal life exists within them. If coral reefs and rainforests are not protected, they will continue to be eroded at a rapid rate. This will result in the extinction of many species of plants and animals that cannot survive outside of these ecosystems, and will not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive.
Warmer water temperatures are a threat to coral reefs. Rising temperatures cause the algae living in coral to die, which creates bleached, dead reefs such as occurred in 1998 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Rainforests need the moisture from rainfall to thrive. According to researchers at the University of Utah, who conducted studies in the Isthmus of Panama, a lack of rain will cause the extinction of some species, while others will develop a drought tolerance.
Corals are small, sessile animals from the cnidaria family that live in colonies. Other marine life in this species includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Corals feed by grasping small fish and planktonic animals with tentacles. The hard calcium carbonate skeletons that corals secrete are what forms colonies and grows reefs over time.
Given the seeming similarities, it would be easy to say that coral reef communities are analogous to tropical rainforests. However, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although agreeing that both environments are diverse and support complex habitats, say that the differences between the two outweigh the similarities.
