Nonfiction That Makes the Grade: The Coral Reef by Philip Johansson

No marine scene on this planet holds more fascinating forms of life, is more threatened by changes in habitat, or is more spellbinding for us air breathers than the coral reefs of the world. Philip Johansson's The Coral Reef: A Colorful Web of Life (Wonderful Water Biomes) takes middle readers along with marine biology researchers for a closer and, shall we say, deeper look at this thrilling and threatened biome of planet Earth.

Along the way the reader meets some of the 4,000 species of fish and thousands of other plants and animals which join together in the web of life which makes up the world's coral reefs. We learn where in the world these coral reefs are found, how they are built on the rock-like limestone base laid down by generations of corals to form a habitat for lifeforms from plankton to worms, mollusks to crustaceans, fish and even birds and mammals drawn to this teeming source of food and life. Johansson likens the coral reef to the rain forest and to "bustling cities" in which "fantastic animals of every color dart in and out of buildings of coral..., schools of fish cruise along the main streets, [and] parks of algae wave in the currents."

In this interdependent world each plant and animal plays its strategic part, parts which are a delicately balanced commerce of plants, herbivores, carnivores, and detritivores who make up the food chains and food web of the reef. Types of reefs (barrier, atoll, and shoreline) are described and contrasted, and coral reef plants and coral reef animals are given full treatment in separate chapters, while dazzling color photos extend the text on each page. Johansson gives a nod to familiar reef inhabitants such as the black-tipped shark and moray eel, but most of the attention is given to the characteristics and role of more unfamiliar creatures such as the coralline alga plant which secretes a type of "pink cement" which reinforces crumbling portions of the reef or the algae-eating flower sea urchin, which like a venomous vacuum slowly patrols and eats the overgrowth of algae which would otherwise kill the coral polyps on which the biome depends.

Summaries of main points follow each chapter, and backmatter includes a glossary, a bibliography of books and internet sites, and an index. Other books in Enslow Publishing's Wonderful Water Biomes series are The Seashore: A Saltwater Web of Life (Wonderful Water Biomes), Marshes and Swamps: A Wetland Web of Life (Wonderful Water Biomes), and Lakes and Rivers: A Freshwater Web of Life (Wonderful Water Biomes).