Question #1:
Here is a list of some of the native animals that live in one of the planet's most intricate ecosystems:
- Fish
- Corals
- Mollusks
- Echinoderms
- Jellyfish
- Sea Snakes
- Marine turtles
- Sponges
- Whales
- Dolphins
- Seabirds
- Shorebirds
This is about all.
Question #2:
One species of organism that can be found in the Great Barrier Reefs are nudibranchs. These are shell-less, marine snail of the suborder Nudibranchia, having external, often branched respiratory appendages on the back and sides.
Question #3:
A biotic factor would be the the living components. Coral, animals (such as sea turtles, crabs, sea urchins, fish, sharks, eels, dolphins, and seals), plants (including seaweed and plankton), and bacteria are some of the Great Barrier Reef's biotic elements.
Question #4:
It is usually temperature and sunlight. But due to the Great Barrier Reef being an aquatic system, it would also include buoyancy, salinity, etc.
As we are discovering from events in Australia, abiotic factors coupled with biotic have a dramatic effect of reefs. Temperature is important - for the most part coral don't like cold water but water that is too warm can be lethal as well. Water chemistry is important - the pH of the water is being altered by greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and water mix to form carbonic acid, lowering the pH along with all the other airborne acid-causing gases. Water chemistry is also important in that reefs tend to grow in water that is nutrient poor - too much of a good thing kills them. Many of these abiotic factors are important not just to the coral but the photosynthetic organisms that live inside of the m called zooxanthella - algae that have become symbiotic with the coral. Kill them, and you kill the host.
Thanks,
Eddie