Ecosystems at Risk Essay

Corals build colonies that secrete calcium carbonate to form ocean reefs. When they're healthy, coral reefs provide shelter and food for animals all along the food chain, including the top: us. Across the planet, half a billion people rely, directly and indirectly, on corals for their living. That's why what happens to the 9,000-year-old Great Barrier Reef, as well as to other reefs worldwide, is critical. The floods in Queensland have hurt the Great Barrier Reef by funnelling into the ocean vast plumes of freshwater and agricultural runoff that could severely damage the coral. Besides the extreme rain that sparked the floods, rising ocean temperatures, changes to the ocean's chemistry and the global trade in natural resources — all symptoms of our fossil-fuel economy — are waging a multiform war on the marine

Because the GBR is such a highly visited tourist attraction for snorkeling and diving, there has been a large number of human structures that have been built in natural areas. Every five years, the Australian government publishes an Outlook Report that examines the Great Barrier Reef’s health, pressures, and likely future. “The report is required under Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 (section 54) and aims to provide a regular and reliable means of assessing reef health and management in an accountable and transparent way.” The report shows the actions that have been taken since 2009, including the focus on improving the quality of water that runs off the land. The increased freshwater run-off is in direct relation to the coastal development that has occurred since the major bleaching events have begun. The report released in 2009, states that the greatest risks to the Reef are still climate change, land-based runoff, coastal development, and some remaining impacts of fishing and illegal fishing and poaching. The report points out climate change as being the main cause of the destruction or bleaching of the reef (Department of Environment and Energy 2017). Most observers conclude that the climate change is a direct result of human

The audience of this book is presumed to be the general person who is not fully intact with the ideas that he or she is disrupting the ecosystem and is not aware of the effects they are doing as a whole. The book argues that no ecosystem is completely inert as things such as climate changes or drought can also affect the enviorment. Without human interaction an environment can still have issues, but the introduction of human life and economy does take a grave toll on the climate. These are irreversible effects that mankind are doing to the ecosystem. The English

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beloved regions of the world but due to recent human activity in surrounding areas and subsequent sediment delivery, coral and seagrass habits within are being negatively impacted. Extending 2000km along the North-eastern Australian coast (Brodie et al., 2007), the Great Barrier Reef is a major source of income for Northern Australia and fuels the growth of local businesses. As industrialization in areas adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon have increased since European settlement (McCulloch et al., 2003), the need for more resources to compensate for human population has led to harmful land practices such as overstocking and deforestation for cattle grazing inland. These are causing a significant

The Great Barrier Reef is slowly dying sometimes because of humans. The species of animals and plants and in danger. Some of the factors that are causing it to die can’t be stopped like natural disasters. But the pollution can be prevented. The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest reef in the world and we need to protect it from dying

The Great Barrier Reef is unique in that no other World Heritage Site plays host to such a large biodiversity. UNESCO notes that the reef is “of enormous scientific and intrinsic importance, and it also contains a significant number of threatened species.” Despite its designation, however, the site is threated by a variety of pressures, both natural and man-made. Starfish outbreaks, cyclones, and other extreme weather events are all counted, as well as human tourism and coastal developments. Thankfully, due to the sites extensive size and varying ecosystems, the reef and its inhabitants retain a great capacity to recover from, and withstand, ongoing

Australia’s scientists have released its comprehensive map of the Great Barrier Reef’s bleached corals revealing that less than 36% of the areas explored have not been severely bleached yet. The bleaching is caused by abnormally hot waters due to El Niño and climate change. These high temperatures cause corals’ symbiotic algae, which is their crucial food source, to become scarce and toxic, forcing the corals to expel it. Removing the algae turns the coral bone white and the coral begins to starve. Of the 911 individual reefs that researchers surveyed, a large 93%-843 reefs-experienced some kind of bleaching. Furthermore, the Great Barrier Reef is home to more than 1,500 different kinds of fish, 6 of the worlds remain seven marine turtle species

The Great Barrier reef is the largest reef in the world.( It holds 2,800 reef’s total, and in some places the reef is 400 feet thick- compound). The reef generates $5 billion and employs 700,000 workers to keep the reef clean. The reef has had three massive bleaching events and one is still going on, and is affecting the reef worse than the other two. The other two events were in 1998 and 2002.

Brightly colored reefs, and a variety of creatures swarm over the Great Barrier. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest reef system! The Great Barrier Reef has been around for an extremely long time, and it has thrived for thousands of years. Sadly, scientists have noticed that as of lately, this beautiful reef is in fact dying. Scientists have been studying the main contributors to this decline, and have been proficient in examining the smaller details. They have also been studying how the dying of this reef is not only affecting ocean ecosystems and organisms, but it has the potential to also greatly affect a part of our world’s population.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s seven natural wonders and is the largest reef system and the biggest living structure on the planet. It covers an impressive area of 344, 400 square kilometers and is so large that it can be seen from space. It includes the world’s largest collection of corals with more than 400 different kinds of corals, coral sponges, mollusks, rays, dolphins, over 1500 species of tropical fish, more than 200 types of birds, around 20 types of reptiles including sea turtles and giant clams over 120 years old. The Great Barrier Reef is composed of 3,000 individual reef systems, 600 tropical islands and about 300 coral cays. In the past three decades, it has lost half its coral cover, pollution has caused deadly

This has extreme repercussions on the weather and other factors surrounding it, therefore having incomprehensible negative impact on the reef. This includes rising sea temperatures which has the biggest impact on the coral. Increased temperatures bleach the coral to a point where they cannot recover and die. When one thinks about the great barrier reef, they admire the coral but often forget just how important it is to the survival and diversity of the reef. They provide a home and protection to all the animals living in the

As the planet’s largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a World Heritage Site (1981) and one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Stretching for over 2,300 km along the East coast of Queensland from Bundaberg in the South and Cape York in the North and covering 334,400 square kilometres the GBR is an icon globally acknowledged providing a $ 6 Billion revenue each year from tourism. With a latitude of 8ﹾ-24ﹾS and longitude 141ﹾE, this biodiverse ecosystem is comprised of 2,900 individual reefs, along with an immense 90 % all of marine species on Earth, inhabiting this fragile reef. The following literature review is concerned with the current health of the Great Barrier Reef, this is vitally important as

The great barrier reef is beautiful, spectacular and simply mind-blowing. It is the world's largest reef system and is made of more than 2900 individual reefs. The reef holds over 900 islands that stretch for over 2600 km. The reef is 344,400km², this is bigger than the UK, Holland and Switzerland combined. It is home to over 1500 species of fish, 411 species of hard coral, a third of the world's soft corals, 134 types of rays and sharks, 6 of the 7 species of endangered marine turtles and over 30 species of marine mammals including the endangered dugong. This world heritage site brings over 2 million tourists to the annually and generates about 5-6 billion dollars. But the reef is under threat. Increasing pesticides, sediment runoff and

Since commercial fishing in Australia’s coral reefs began in the early 1970s, overfishing, climate change, dynamite fishing, and pollution have contributed to a large-scale decline in the health of the reefs and the marine life that reside within them. The Great Barrier Reef stands as one of the most varied ecosystems in the world, serving as a natural environment for thousands of species of marine life. The reefs provide millions of dollars in revenue for Australia by attracting many tourists, providing fish, and by advancing medical research. The coral reefs are beneficial to Australia because they serve as a barrier to protect the land from large waves and tsunamis.

Ecosystem is constantly associated with a particular combination of climatic characteristics. (Walter 1968). The patterns of rainfall are changing and temperatures are rising. These, together with other factors are already being felt by both the human and the natural communities. Human are not only the receptors of climate change, but also they drive the process of the change. Humankind, as a driver of global environmental change, has degraded land, caused desertification, deforestation, changed the use of land to suite his purpose, depleted the ozone layer, and caused air pollution among other ways. Majority of these factors have worked synergistically, thereby, compounding the effects on the environment.