{"id":1037,"date":"2021-08-09T06:26:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coral.org\/?page_id=1037"},"modified":"2021-09-09T11:46:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T18:46:00","slug":"hard-corals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/coral-reefs-101\/hard-corals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Corals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hard Corals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are two main types of corals: hard corals and soft corals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard corals, like elkhorn coral and staghorn coral, grow in colonies and are often referred to as \u201creef-building corals.\u201d Hard corals create skeletons out of calcium carbonate, a hard substance that eventually becomes rock. Overtime, this rock builds up to form the foundation of a coral reef and provides a structure upon which baby corals can settle. Hard corals depend upon tiny algae called zooxanthellae (pronounced zo-zan-THEL-ee) that live inside them. Together, they share a symbiotic relationship\u2014the corals provide the zooxanthellae with shelter, and in return, the zooxanthellae provide the corals with food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornus) in Cordelia Banks, off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. Photo by CORAL staff<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard Corals There are two main types of corals: hard corals and soft corals. Hard corals, like elkhorn coral and staghorn coral, grow in colonies and are often referred to as \u201creef-building corals.\u201d Hard corals create skeletons out of calcium carbonate, a hard substance that eventually becomes rock. Overtime, this rock builds up to form… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1524,"parent":93,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"sidebar-content","_genesis_transparent_header":false,"_genesis_hide_siblings_nav":true,"_genesis_hide_flyout":false,"_genesis_subtitle":"","_genesis_subheading":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1037","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"acf":[],"template_part":"","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/static.coral.org\/uploads\/2021\/08\/coral-reefs-101-hero.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/static.coral.org\/uploads\/2021\/08\/coral-reefs-101-hero.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1037\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}