Coral reefs provide a surging, concentrated ecosystem -- a sort of sea soup -- from the high tide line where the land animals and plants live, around the lagoons the reefs protect, and into the sea itself; the shallow reef flats and pools make up the commonly seen "reef." The reef itself is awash in a sea dense with life forms too small to see with the naked eye as well as with the elaborate and dramatic colors and shapes of creatures so unlike us that we can only stare in wonder.