About molluscs

About molluscs
Mollusca (the Latin word molluscus, which means "sweet") are a tribe of invertebrate animals with more than 50,000 known species.

There are seven classes of molluscs:

1st Gastropoda (eg, abalone and shellfish, such as black abalone, abalone green, pink abalone, abalone Pinto, white abalone and shellfish)
2nd Bivalves (eg oysters and mussels)
3rd Cephalopods (eg octopus and squid)
4th Aplacophora (vermiform molluscs)
5th Monoplacophora (only mollusk with a segmented internal structure)
6th Polyplacophora (for example, chitons)
7th Scaphopoda (such as mussels defense)

The majority of molluscs (including abalone) are the class Gastropoda, whose name translates from Latin as "stomach foot." Mollusks are soft-bodied animals, a hard external shell (could've composed by the secretion of calcium carbonate), an internal hard shell, or no shell. Molluscs have to be taxonomically annelids (segmented worms) and Pogonophora (tube worms from deep water) in context.

About Algae
There are several categories of marine plants, including seaweed, algae and mangroves. Seaweeds, such as Johnson grass, are true flowering plants that have adapted to life in the marine environment. Most seaweed reproduce through pollination (similar to many terrestrial plants) and are located in coastal marine areas. Mangroves are also true, and flowering plants are found in coastal waters of different salinities. Algae are not true, and flowering plants grown in size, big on microscopic phytoplankton algae.

On Coral
Corals are invertebrates in the phylum Cnidaria and the fossils from at least the Cambrian (about 500 million years). The coral polyps are composed of invertebrates, and can generally be categorized as hard and soft corals. Hard coral skeletons from calcium carbonate to grow in colonies and are builders of coral animals living in symbiosis with zooxanthellae called phytoplankton. The soft coral and limestone particles are flexible in their body walls of a structural support. Soft corals do not grow in colonies and build the reefs are found in both tropical and deep, cold waters of the ocean, and not always contain zooxanthellae. Corals are taxonomically to anemones, jellyfish, polyps and family.

Corals are classified in a class:

1st Anthozoa, with two subclasses of living species:
* Octocorallia (eg, corals, sea pens and soft corals)
* Zoantharias (also called Hexacorallia, for example, black corals and stony corals, coral reef builders). Elkhorn, staghorn, tree d'Ivoire and coral reefs of Hawaii are all in order Scleractinia

About brachiopods
Brachiopods are benthic aquatic feed, whose name translates from Latin as "foot arms." Brachiopods are sessile (fixed and connected), and sessile animals are the first to surround her body with a solid shell. They seem like shells outside, but have a unique anatomy. Most brachiopods attach to substrate with muscle stem cells (or stem) and the food is called with an appendage ring sensor. The tribe is Brachiopoda brachiopods were common and very abundant in the fossil record in the Paleozoic. Their number was significant during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction about 250 million years, and today it is reduced about 300 species of living brachiopods. The brachiopods are taxonomically related bryozoans, corals or tip.

There are two major classes of brachiopods:

1st Inarticulata (for example, inarticulate brachiopods)
2nd Articulated

Key factors decline

* Abalone: overfishing, low population density, loss of genetic diversity, disease, poaching and plundering of natural
* Lambi: unsustainable harvesting
* Plant: a change in habitat resulting from human disturbances and natural, and deteriorating water quality by nutrient enrichment
Coral *: disease outbreaks since 1980, habitat destruction and modification by sedimentation, increased predation, hurricanes, pollution, exotic species, invasive green algae, the limited spread of mechanical damage to fishing gear, anchors, nets, divers and swimmers, and coral bleaching
* Brachiopods: habitat destruction and alteration, overexploitation, pollution and sedimentation, vulnerable life history characteristics and low distribution

More information
Program of the NOAA Coral Health and Monitoring
NOAA Coral Reef Information System
NOAA Fisheries Coral Reef Conservation
CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)