LEVELED BOOK • U a Reading A–Z Level U Leveled Book Word Count: 1,704 AAUUSSTTRRAALLIIAA

Australia LEVELED BOOK • U A Reading A–Z Level U Leveled Book Word Count: 1,704 AAUUSSTTRRAALLIIAA

Written by Terry Miller Shannon

Visit www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. Photo Credits: Front cover, back cover, title page, pages 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 (main), 16, 18: © Jupiterimages Corporation; page 9 (top): © ea-4/iStock/Thinkstock; page 9 (bottom): © Minden Pictures/SuperStock; page 13 (inset): © Lawrence Manning/ Corbis; page 14: Convicts on their way to Botany Bay (litho), Woodville, Richard Caton (1825-56)/Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library; page 17: USTRALI © TopFoto/The Image Works; page 19: © John White Photos/Alamy; page 20: © Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images; page 21: © Mishkacz/ A A Dreamstime.com; page 22: © imagebroker/Alamy

Cover: Koala bear

Title page: Sydney Opera House

Back cover: Twelve Apostles rock formations on the Australian coast

Australia Written by Terry Miller Shannon Level U Leveled Book © Learning A–Z Correlation Written by Terry Miller Shannon LEVEL U Maps by Craig Frederick Fountas & Pinnell Q All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 40 DRA 40 www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com Asia Europe North America Africa

South America Australia

Antarctica Australia is one of the world’s richest natural areas.

Introduction Table of Contents The official name of Australia is the Introduction ...... 4 Commonwealth of Australia, but Australians call Geography ...... 6 their land “Oz .” It is a place so unique, it might have come from a fantasy story rather than real Animals ...... 8 life . Many of the things you see in Australia, The Outback ...... 11 from the incredible landscapes to the amazing creatures, are unlike anything else on Earth . History ...... 13 Australia has a rich and fascinating history . Modern Australia ...... 19 A group of people called Aborigines has lived Explore More ...... 23 in Australia for over 40,000 years . Britain claimed Australia just over 200 years ago . Since then, the Glossary ...... 24 country has changed from a small colony to a Index ...... 24 nation with approximately 22 million citizens .

Australia • Level U 3 4 Australia’s population is also unique . Geography Although Australia has lots of industry, most Australia is the only country that is also a areas have almost no people . Those under- continent (landmass) . Australia is the oldest populated areas are known as the outback, and continent, at 40 million years old, the smallest the people who live there have a frontier spirit, continent, and the world’s largest island! It is even in this day . However, most Australians live also the world’s flattest continent . Australia is in cities and lead modern lives . the sixth largest country in the world . It is as large To learn more about the fascinating country as the United States (not counting Hawaii and called Australia, simply turn the page . Welcome Alaska) . The continent covers 7,692,024 square to Australia! kilometers (2,969,907 sq mi) of land . Australia is located in the southern hemisphere (half of the earth) . The Indian Ocean borders Australia on the west and south, while the Pacific Ocean surrounds the northern and eastern edges . The country of Australia includes the island state of Tasmania, which is 240 kilometers (150 mi) off Australia’s southern tip, across the Bass Strait .

There are three main areas in Australia: the Western Plateau, the Central Lowlands, and the Eastern Highlands . The Western Plateau, covering two-thirds of Australia, is a flat, dry, desert area with hot weather . Scientists have found the world’s oldest rocks in the Western Plateau . Dry grasslands are found in the Central Lowlands, where it is hot all year during the day,

Most Australians live in coastal towns and cities, such as Sydney.

Australia • Level U 5 6 but can be very cold at night . The Great Dividing Range, part of the Eastern Highlands, holds rivers, valleys, and Australia’s highest mountains .

(Clockwise from top left) Kangaroos, crocodiles, koala bears, Tasmanian devils, cockatoos, and frilled lizards have become symbols of Australia.

Animals Western Plateau Central Lowlands Eastern Highlands Australia’s animals are amazing! Because of the continent’s isolation and harsh conditions, animals seen nowhere else on Earth have developed .

Today, some of these animals are threatened (in danger of dying out and becoming extinct) . As cities grow larger, the natural areas have grown smaller . Homes and food for some animals The Natural Regions of Australia are becoming scarce .

Australia • Level U 7 8 Only in Australia can you find a platypus . Koalas look like This unusual animal has four legs, fur, beady teddy bears, but eyes, a tail like a they aren’t bears at beaver’s, a duck’s bill, all . They’re actually and webbed feet . When a related to the British scientist first saw kangaroo, another a platypus, he believed common Australian someone was playing a animal . Koalas are the practical joke! An adult Platypus only animals besides male platypus has a primates (a group of venomous spur on its back ankles . Although a animals that includes platypus is a mammal (a warm-blooded animal humans, apes, and Koalas eat only one thing: that nurses its young), females lay eggs . eucalyptus leaves. monkeys) that have unique fingerprints . There are around 700 types of Australian snakes and lizards . When one lizard called a Many of Australia’s mammals are marsupials . thorny devil feels threatened, it inflates with air A marsupial gives birth to a tiny, helpless baby to look bigger and shows its skin spikes . If it’s that lives in a pouch or pocket on its mother’s really scared, it tucks its head between its front body . On other continents, most marsupials legs, and a big spiny knob sticks out on the back disappeared long ago . But Australia’s isolation of its neck—like allowed marsupials to thrive . Kangaroos, a fake head . A wallabies, and koalas are all marsupials . thorny devil can The animals on these pages are just a few eat thousands of of the large number of creatures found only ants in one day . in Australia!

Thorny devil

Australia • Level U 9 10 Some residents of the outback live and work on enormous ranches called stations. Some stations are actually larger than some small countries! Other people work in mining and oil production . The only city in the outback, Alice Springs, welcomes tourists who come to Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is one of the most famous sights visit Uluru . in Australia.

The Outback The Australian outback is the huge dry inland area . Rain may not fall there for years at a time . There can be hundreds of miles between “towns,” which are usually just a few buildings . The outback has enormous deserts . There are also some mountainous regions . Stations in the outback seem to go on forever. There are many colorfully gorgeous sights here: enormous golden plains, red rocks, and Do You Know? purple mountain ranges . The landscape is The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is empty and stretches forever . This is truly frontier the largest coral reef system in the world. It is home to country for hardy pioneers . more than 2,000 types of fish, many types of coral, If you visit the outback, keep your eye out for and other sea creatures, wild camels! The animals were brought there in sea plants, and birds. the 1870s as desert transportation . Today, the Just how big is the Great largest number of wild camels in the world lives Barrier Reef? You can in the outback . Some tourist places offer camel actually see it from space! tours to visitors .

Australia • Level U 11 12 In the 17th century, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish sailors viewed Australia from their ships . The Dutch landed in 1606 and explored for around 150 years, but decided the land was worthless . In 1688, the first Englishman, William Dampier, arrived . Although Dampier wasn’t impressed with Australia, he wrote a book about what he saw .

Finally, in 1770, an Englishman, Captain James Do You Know? Cook, arrived in Australia . He claimed Australia’s Aborigines used boomerangs in games, to hunt and fight, and to build fires by rubbing east coast for Britain, calling it New South Wales . the edges against other sticks. The word Because of crowding in British prisons, England Aborigines lived entirely boomerang simply means “throwing stick.” established a convict colony (a settlement of off the Not all boomerangs were meant to come back prisoners) in Australia . The first settlement had animals and to the thrower. By 8,000 bc, the Aborigines 759 prisoners plants they invented a “returning boomerang” that would hunted and (568 men and gathered. swirl in the air and return to the thrower. 191 women), 200 soldiers, and 40 wives and History children of the The first people living in Australia were the soldiers . These Aborigines . They probably traveled by sea from people lived in Asia more than 40,000 years ago . By the time tents and ate Europeans settled Australia, there may have been native animals close to one million Aborigines in Australia . and food sent The early Aborigines were nomads (people who from England . moved frequently) . They hunted and gathered food in small groups and lived in temporary mud This drawing shows prisoners on a ship sailing to Botany Bay, Australia, in 1870. homes . They had at least 300 different languages .

Australia • Level U 13 14 When that first settlement survived, more The Aborigines did not fare well after Britain settlers began to arrive . Free settlers set up farms, began colonizing Australia . Many died due to explored the land, and searched for minerals . new diseases brought into the country . Others By the early 1800s, explorers had sailed around died because of fighting between the newcomers Australia and traveled through the interior . and the Aboriginal people . In the 1850s, the Different colonies (groups from distant lands, British forced many of the surviving natives still tied to the parent country) settled throughout to live on reservations . the continent during the 19th century . Gold was discovered in New South Wales and in Victoria in 1851 . In the gold rush that followed, Do You Know? men from all over Australia, as well as European Six colonies were established by free settlers and Chinese immigrants, rushed to the gold and former convicts during the 1700s and 1800s. fields . Some found gold and became wealthy, while others did not .

NORTHERN TERRITORY

QUEENSLAND

WESTERN AUSTRALIA SOUTH AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES

VICTORIA • New South Wales in 1786 AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL • Tasmania (originally “Van TERRITORY TASMANIA Diemen’s Land”) in 1825 • Western Australia in 1829 • Victoria in 1851 • South Australia in 1834 • Queensland in 1859 A worker pours liquid Australian gold into a mold to create a standard weight gold bar.

Australia • Level U 15 16 Australian soldiers have fought in major wars.

Modern Aborigines still fight against discrimination.

The colonies became states . In 1901, they united under one government and called Early Australian immigration (people moving themselves the Commonwealth of Australia . into a country) laws had allowed mostly northern Britain entered World War I in 1914, with Europeans to enter the country . This changed Australia fighting alongside . in the 1960s and 1970s, allowing more Asian immigrants . A huge depression (a period of poverty) struck Australia in 1929 . By 1931, one out of In 1967, voters chose to include Aborigines every three workers was unemployed, and as citizens in all the states for the first time . Some many were homeless . Business and the economy land rights were given to Aboriginal citizens improved from 1934 to 1937 . During World War II, in 1972 . Aborigines, Australia’s poorest group, Australians fought alongside Allied soldiers . struggle to maintain their rights even today .

Australia • Level U 17 18 Modern Australia About 90 percent of Australians live in cities . Australia is a democracy, with three levels Australian cities are modern, but they are long of government: local, state, and federal . The distances from each other . country’s leader, who is chosen by elected Australia’s capital city is Canberra, which lawmakers, is called the Prime Minister . is within New South Wales . Although it is the Australians speak English, and they pay for center of politics and government, it has some purchases with Australian dollars . Much small-town charms . There are only around of Australian culture comes from Britain . 500,000 residents . The city has art museums, the Australians still honor the queen of Britain High Court of Australia, the Australian National as their ceremonial head of state . In 1999, University, and other important places . Australians voted to keep this loyalty to Britain .

In 2003, approximately 20 million people lived in Australia . Of all Australians, about 92 percent are Caucasian, or white, and 7 percent are Asian . Today, 350,000 Aboriginal people live in Australia . Almost every single Australian adult can read!

Much of Australia is open ranch land with few roads. Looking down on Canberra

Australia • Level U 19 20 While Australia has little farmland, it is rich in minerals and precious gems.

Sydney’s opera house is one of the most famous and unusual buildings in the world. At one time, the wool industry was Australia’s largest business, but that is no longer the case . Sydney is Australia’s largest city, with a Major Australian industries include mining, the population above four million . Within the city manufacture of industrial and transportation lie a business district, Chinatown, The Botanic equipment, construction, food processing, Gardens, museums and art galleries, and many chemicals, and steel . Some new industries are old buildings . Surrounding the city are national winemaking and tourism . parks filled with plants and animals . Sydney is The country’s natural resources include also home to some of the most beautiful beaches bauxite (a claylike material from which in the world . aluminum is obtained), coal, iron ore, copper, Australia’s other big cities include Melbourne, tin, silver, uranium, nickel, natural gas, and Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide . Like almost all of petroleum . Australia also exports meat, wool, Australia’s cities, these are right along the coast . wheat, sugar, and machinery .

Australia • Level U 21 22 Explore More Glossary 1 At the Library bauxite a claylike material from which aluminum is obtained (p . 22) Ask your school or local librarian to help you colony a group settled in a distant land, yet find information about Australia . You can look closely tied to the parent country (p . 4) up books on Australian history, the outback, Aborigines, and modern Australia . You can also continent mass of land (p . 6) find many books on unusual Australian animals, convict a prisoner (p . 14) such as kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas . depression a long or severe slowing down or failing of an economy (p . 17) 2 On the Internet hemisphere half of the Earth (p . 6) A . In the address window, type www.google.com. immigration people moving from one country B . Pick a subject you’d like to explore, such to another (p . 18) as the outback, and type it in the search window . Click on “Google Search .” mammal a warm-blooded animal that nurses its young (p . 9) C . Read the colored links . Click on one that looks interesting . marsupials mammals that keep their young in a pouch on the female’s body (p . 10) D . If you want to explore more links, click on the “Back” arrow on the top left . nomads people who move from place to place and have no permanent home (p . 13) E . Try searching for other subjects, such as kangaroos, Aborigines, Sydney, or other topics . primate animals such as humans, apes, or monkeys (p . 10) 3 In the Media threatened at risk of becoming endangered (p . 8) Australia produces a diverse selection of Index movies, music, art, and theater . Ask your teacher, Aborigines, 4, 13, 16, outback, 5, 11, 12 parent, or librarian to help you find films that 18, 19 New South Wales, 15, take place in Australia or music that comes from Cook, Captain James, 14 16, 20 Australia . You might be surprised by the richness Great Dividing Range, 7 Sydney, 15, 21 of Australia’s landscape and modern culture . koalas, 8, 10 Tasmania, 6, 15

Australia • Level U 23 24 Name Instructions: Write the main idea and important details for each of the chapters listed on the chart below. 1

Chapter Main Idea Important Details •

L U EVE L

•

Animals australia

The Outback

History ON SI EHEN R : COMP ILL K Modern S Australia

1. Pack (you’re, your) camera when you visit Australia. 2 •

2. (It’s, Its) a unique and beautiful country. L U EVE L

• 3. A platypus lays two eggs that attach to (it’s, its) belly.

4. (Who’s, Whose) the first European to land in Australia? australia

5. (You’re, Your) likely to see a kangaroo when you visit Australia.

6. A boomerang returns to (it’s, its) thrower.

7. Keep (you’re, your) eye out for wild camels in the outback.

8. The Aborigines, (who’s, whose) lands were taken from them, are still fighting for their rights.

9. Canberra has kept (it’s, its) small-town charm.

10. The wool industry is no longer (it’s, its) largest industry.

11. If (you’re, your) interested in diamonds, Australia is a good place to visit.

12. Some of (it’s, its) other industries are food processing, chemicals, and steel. e s, usag c i n a mech ar, mm : gra ILL K S

1. One little lizard can inflate its body. •

L U EVE L

2. Koala bears are cute but not cuddly. •

3. Wild camels can be found in the outback. australia

4. The first Aborigines moved from place to place.

5. Canberra is a modern Australian city.

6. The outback can be a harsh, desolate place.

7. There is a colorful beauty in the deserts of Australia.

8. Many animals in Australia are found nowhere else. abulary voc : ILL K S

Connections Writing Do you think people should protect coral reefs? Write an answer to the question using details from the book. Art Draw or paint a picture of a coral reef. Label your art with at least ten words from the book. • U N • Q

Written by Paula Schricker

Visit www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. www.readinga-z.com Words to Know bleaching flexible Coral Reefs carbon dioxide fragile coral reefs resilient dissolve skeletons ecosystem tropical erosion tsunami

Title page: Brain corals are stony corals that look like . . . brains! Page 3: Reefs offer many good hiding places for animals, such as this moray eel.

Photo Credits: Front cover: © Vincent Pommeyrol/Moment/Getty Images; title page: courtesy of Peter Craig/National Park of American Samoa/NPS/US Dept of Interior; page 3: courtesy of Mohammed Al Momany/NOAA; page 4: © Georgette Douwma/Stockbyte/Getty Images; page 5 (left): © A. Martin UW Photography/ Moment/Getty Images; page 5 (top right): © Moment Open/Getty Images; page 5 (bottom right): © Peter Scoones/Science Source; page 6: © Humberto Ramirez/Moment/Getty Images; page 7 (top): © Mauricio Handler/National Geographic/Getty Images; page 7 (bottom): © Steve De Neef/National Geographic/Getty Images; page 8: © Georgette Douwma/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images; page 9: Nick Hanna/Alamy Stock Photo; page 11: © Kieran Stone/Moment Open/Getty Images; page 12: © Federica Grassi/Moment/Getty Images; page 13: © Ethan Daniels/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images; page 15: © Ethan Daniels/WaterFrame/Getty Images; page 16 (top): © Joe Fox/age footstock; page 16 (bottom): Stephen Frink Collection/Alamy Stock Photo; Written by Paula Schricker page 17: Jose B. Ruiz/Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo; page 18: courtesy of Paige Gill /Florida Keys NMS/NOAA; page 19: © Ronny Adolof Buol/ www.readinga-z.com Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

Coral Reefs Focus Question Level U Leveled Book Correlation © Learning A–Z LEVEL U Written by Paula Schricker What are coral reefs, and why are they Fountas & Pinnell Q being protected? All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 40 www.readinga-z.com DRA 40 Many kinds of corals, fish, and other sea creatures live on coral reefs.

Introduction Just below the surface of Earth’s tropical oceans lie huge undersea communities known as coral Table of Contents reefs . These places of wonder and beauty support an incredible variety of life . Coral reefs are home Introduction ...... 4 to thousands of living organisms that depend on What Is Coral? ...... 5 each other for food, shelter, and safety . Day and night, thousands of animals swim about, hunting, A Busy Underwater Community ...... 8 eating, and avoiding being eaten . Where Are Coral Reefs? ...... 10 Almost one-quarter of all plants and animals Threats to Coral Reefs ...... 13 in the ocean live around coral reefs . Fish, sea turtles, sea stars, and many other animals make Protecting Coral Reefs ...... 17 reefs their home . Visitors include seabirds and Glossary ...... 20 dolphins .

Coral Reefs • Level U 3 4 What Is Coral? Hundreds of kinds of coral live in the ocean . At first glance, coral may look like oddly Most belong to one of two types . Hard corals, shaped rocks or spiny plants . Corals are actually also known as stony corals, form hard skeletons . tiny animals called polyps (PAH-l ips) . Most Over time, many millions of these hard skeletons polyps are very small—between the size of a build up and form reefs . pinhead and the size of a pea . One branch or Most kinds of stony coral live together with a mound of coral can have thousands of these tiny variety of plantlike algae (AL-jee) . The algae help polyps attached to it . Each polyp has a tubelike supply food for the corals and for many of the fish body and a mouth surrounded by tiny tentacles . that live around the reef . Polyps are eating machines . At night, they open their tentacles to catch tiny animals and get the nutrients they need .

Coral polyps attach to the surface beneath them and stay there forever. Elkhorn coral looks like the broad antlers of an elk. (Elk don’t have horns.)

Coral Reefs • Level U 5 6 Golden butterflyfish and a school of red bigeye fish swim past soft corals in Egypt’s Red Sea.

A Busy Underwater Community Most people think of brightly colored fish when they think about coral reefs—and with good reason . Over four thousand species of fish live on reefs . The reefs provide them with food as well as protection from predators . Some fish live off the algae and plankton around the reef, and some eat other fish that live there . A few types of fish even eat the coral itself . Sea pens collapse and hide in sand if creatures get too close (top). Sea fans branch up and out like wide fans. Their shape helps them trap tiny organisms to eat (bottom). Shrimp, lobsters, and crabs also consider reefs a favorite dining spot . Sea urchins and sea The second common type is soft coral . These stars catch clams and smaller shellfish hidden corals grow flexible, woody cores instead of among the coral branches . Waving sea anemones, hard skeletons . They often look like trees, bushes, which look like graceful flowers, hide in shallow or other plants . Soft corals can bend with the openings, waiting for their next meal to drift past . currents . Some soft corals have algae growing Large holes in reefs make good homes and hiding in their bodies, but others do not . spots for eels . No space is wasted on a busy reef .

Coral Reefs • Level U 7 8 The Coral Reef Zone NORTH Coral reefs EUROPE ASIA AMERICA PACIFIC OCEAN ATLANTIC not only support OCEAN thousands of species AFRICA Equator of organisms but also INDIAN SOUTH help protect shorelines OCEAN AMERICA AUSTRALIA from floods and Coral reefs storms . By shielding land ocean the coast, reefs reduce ANTARCTICA Most coral reefs are found near the equator. Source: NOAA 2017 erosion, property damage, and loss Where Are Coral Reefs? of human life . Most reefs are located close to shore in warm tropical waters . They also form where warm Coral reefs also Reefs like this one in the Caribbean Sea feed and shelter buffer the land and protect it from currents flow from the tropics, such as in Florida animals that provide damage. and parts of Japan . Corals grow best in warm much of the world’s seafood, thereby helping the water that is between 21 and 29 degrees Celsius economies and diets of many countries . Diving (70–84°F) . Since algae need sunlight to make food, tours and sport fishing also bring visitors—and most corals live near the water’s surface . income—to areas near coral reefs . Reef plants and Even with these conditions in place, coral reefs animals provide ingredients for medicines, too . cannot survive in many areas . They do not grow Coral reefs are a valuable natural resource . well near the mouths of rivers, where dirt, trash, and fresh water flow into the sea . Fresh water Medicines from Coral Reefs can kill corals . Dirt and trash can damage or even Scientists have developed medicines from reef organisms, and smother reefs . more are likely on the way. Corals produce a substance now used in the treatment of asthma and arthritis. Medicines that treat several Because corals grow very slowly, a reef takes different types of cancer come from coral reefs, too. Scientists are a long time to increase in size or recover from also studying other reef organisms that may treat skin conditions damage . Some living coral reefs began growing as well as infections caused by viruses and bacteria. twenty-five million years ago .

Coral Reefs • Level U 9 10 Three types of coral reefs exist . The first type, The Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is between six and eight thousand years fringing reefs, are located close to shore . They old, but coral reefs have been growing in this same spot for about usually follow the natural shoreline, or fringe, five hundred thousand years! Many changes in sea levels occurred of the land . during that time, and low sea levels caused earlier reefs to die. New reefs formed during times of higher sea levels, including after the The second type, barrier reefs, create a deep last ice age ended. Scientists think that the current Great Barrier lagoon, or area of water, between the reef and the Reef is at least the sixth one to form in that location. shore . The world’s largest barrier reef is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia . It is 2,300 kilometers Atolls, the third type of reef, form in a circular (1,429 mi ). long and is made up of over three pattern around a sinking island or an aging island thousand reefs and islands . The Great Barrier volcano . As an island sinks or an island volcano Reef is home to nearly two thousand species ages and breaks apart, the remaining land of fish . disappears beneath the ocean’s surface . When that happens, the growing reef forms a circle around a central lagoon .

Great Barrier Reef The Maldives is a country in the Indian Ocean made up of twenty-six atolls.

Coral Reefs • Level U 11 12 Global Warming Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans large enough to change long- term weather patterns. Global warming today is mainly the result of human activities such as clearing land for farming, industrial processes, and burning coal, oil, and gas. These activities create large amounts of carbon dioxide gas, which enters Earth’s atmosphere and traps heat close to Earth’s surface. Global warming is causing many problems, including wildfires, extreme weather, and threats to coral reefs and other natural communities. Scientists expect the problems to get worse unless we reduce the activities that create so much carbon dioxide.

Another problem that is killing corals is known as bleaching . Today, the most common cause of

Pollution and high ocean temperatures can quickly kill a coral reef. bleaching is ocean temperatures becoming too warm . When this happens, the algae that live Threats to Coral Reefs in coral polyps undergo a chemical change that Coral reefs are fragile, and many things can harms the polyps . The polyps expel the algae to damage them . Large, powerful waves caused by stop the damage . Algae provide coral polyps with a hurricane can destroy reefs . So can a tsunami food as well as color . When corals expel algae, (soo-NAH-mee) . Most damage is caused by they lose their main source of food and begin to people, however . starve . They also lose their color, which makes them look bleached . Poor water quality caused by human pollution is a likely factor in coral diseases . These diseases Corals can sometimes recover from bleaching . can wipe out an ancient coral reef in weeks . But if the cause of bleaching continues, both the Another likely factor, also caused by people, is corals and the reef will die . Bleaching now affects higher ocean temperatures as a result of global three-quarters of coral reefs . warming .

Coral Reefs • Level U 13 14 Ships and smaller boats have gouged out scars in Florida’s barrier reef.

Another danger to coral reefs is breaking off chunks of them, whether by accident or

Once-colorful coral reefs around the world are turning white from bleaching. on purpose . Some people take pieces home as souvenirs or to sell . The same human activities that cause too much Since 2011, the carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere also cause area of threatened too much carbon dioxide in oceans . This process reefs has increased makes ocean water more acidic . When this by 30 percent . Even happens, corals can’t take in calcium carbonate, if we could stop which keeps their skeletons healthy . Instead, global warming now, the stony skeletons that support corals and scientists predict that reefs dissolve . more than 90 percent People cause harm to coral reefs in other of coral reefs will die ways, too . Fishing methods that use poisons by 2050 . If we stand and explosives have destroyed over half the by and do nothing, reefs in the Philippines . Coastal homes and other though, we could buildings create soil erosion and fresh water that lose them all . pours into oceans . Fresh water damages coral, and Boaters damaged it may also contain chemicals as well as waste . this elkhorn coral.

Coral Reefs • Level U 15 16 Protecting Coral Reefs In Florida and on the Great Barrier Reef, it is Many countries have taken steps to preserve against the law to take fish, plants, or coral from nearby reefs . In the United States, a government protected areas . People and boats are not allowed group makes maps of coral reefs . Satellite images near many fragile reefs . But these efforts are only help scientists watch for problems . Floating buoys a start . measure sea levels, water temperature, wind Half of the world’s reefs have already speed, and air temperature . All this information been destroyed . Most of those that remain are helps scientists better understand reef damage threatened . It is up to all of us to help save coral and work to reduce it . reefs . Even if you don’t live near an ocean, you can help by doing your part to reduce global warming . Use less energy, walk or bike more, and recycle as much as you can .

Coral Nurseries Scientists can grow pieces of healthy coral in nurseries. The pieces may be rescued from boat-related damage or coastal construction projects. Scientists hang the pieces from bars, place them in baskets, or attach them to stands on the ocean floor. They later move the pieces to damaged reefs to help restore them. Each year, volunteer divers help remove trash from reefs.

Coral Reefs • Level U 17 18 Glossary bleaching (n.) the process of something losing its color, such as when coral turns white after its algae die (p . 14) carbon dioxide an invisible gas that is formed by the (n.) chemical breakdown or burning of organic substances, such as fossil fuels (p . 15) coral reefs (n.) underwater ridges that are found in warm seawater and are made from the external skeletons of small marine animals called polyps (p . 4) dissolve (v.) to break down or disintegrate, usually because of contact with a liquid (p . 15) ecosystem (n.) a community of living things together Indonesian people plant mangrove trees to help protect nearby coral reefs. with their habitat (p . 19)

You can also help by learning how communities erosion (n.) the natural removal of rock or soil by water, wind, or ice (p . 9) around the world support resilient reefs . These flexible reefs stay healthy or recover when faced with (adj.) able to bend without breaking (p . 7) climate-related challenges . Community members fragile (adj.) easily damaged or broken; delicate (p . 13) plant crops that provide shade for coral reefs, resilient (adj.) able to recover after something bad which helps them stay cool . Other people happens (p . 19) grow plants that help prevent erosion and keep skeletons (n.) hard frameworks that support and pollution from entering the ocean . Still others protect the bodies of some animals (p . 6) protect fish that help reefs maintain a balanced tropical (adj.) of or relating to the geographic region ecosystem . around the equator that has a hot, humid climate (p . 4) Each of us can do something to help coral reefs tsunami (n.) a series of large, destructive ocean waves remain a beautiful natural wonder for centuries to caused by an underwater earthquake, come . What can you do? landslide, or volcanic eruption (p . 13)

Coral Reefs • Level U 19 20 Coral Reefs LEVELED BOOK • U A Reading A–Z Level U Leveled Book Word Count: 1,405 Coral Reefs